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Do You Know The 5 Essential Factors for Lifestyle Business Success?

Henri — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:13:33 +0000

Building a lifestyle business is like going to the gym.

You can’t read about working out and expect to become fit.

You have to learn what works, and what doesn’t, and then you have to actually do something.

In the beginning, it’s a struggle, because your body isn’t used to pushing itself.

But soon enough adaptation occurs and you have to up the pressure to make further progress.

The same is true in business.

It’s not about being smart, talented, or connected, although those things certainly help.

It’s about putting in the time to learn the right things, and then taking action.

You start out knowing nothing, but with each step, you get better, smarter, and faster, until finally you’ve built a lifestyle business.

But most people never make it and will never make it. Do you ever wonder why?

Why Do Most People Fail?

When I started out in 2006, I looked for the easy road to success.

I spent thousands on courses, programs, and coaching that got me nowhere.

When I was finally ready to work hard, I didn’t have the right information, so I kept spinning my wheels.

Eventually everything fell into place and I started seeing results, but it all came from my determination to succeed.

And that is what most people lack. They look for the quick and easy way out, and it’s not happening.

Building a lifestyle business comes down to blood, sweat and tears.

If you haven’t yet succeeded, then you keep going until you do.

But if you want to avoid wasting your time, you have to have the essential factors in place.

The 5 Essential Factors for Building a Successful Lifestyle Business

There are many factors that come into play when you want to build a profitable lifestyle business, but as I look back, I see five that stand out.

Building an online business around your passion is simple, but certainly not easy.

The people most likely to succeed are those that are determined to work hard and face their fears.

When that mindset shift happens in people, things take off like a NASA rocket launch.

The good news is that anyone can incorporate the five factors into their life.

So, let’s start with the first factor, which is right information.

Factor #1. Right Information

When you start out, you probably won’t have the right information, because it’s tough to distinguish the good from the bad.

If you go to the gym, and you don’t know what to do, you won’t see the same results as someone who knows exactly what to do, when, and how.

So, how do you get the right information?

You find someone who’s already done what you want to do. It could be a mentor, a coach, or even a training program.

After you’ve got the right information in place, it’s time to focus.

Factor #2. Focus

Focus means doing one thing at a time.

If you try to learn everything, you’re just going to overwhelm yourself.

It wasn’t until I decided to focus on ONE thing that I started seeing massive results.

Think light bulb versus a laser. That’s the kind of focus you’re after.

There’s no room to have ten different projects running. Pick one and do that until you succeed.

But focus is only the beginning. Nothing happens without doing something on a daily basis, which is why you have to have a daily practice.

Factor #3. Daily Practice

You don’t have to quit your day job to build your business.

You can learn how to build a lifestyle business in 2 hours a day or less.

The key lies in taking daily action. Even spending 30 minutes a day learning and implementing the right things can make a big difference.

Don’t put off starting your lifestyle business just because you can’t spend all day doing it.

Do something. Every. Single. Day.

But all of this is irrelevant if you don’t know if you’re on the right track.

Factor #4. Feedback

If you want to make rapid progress, you need feedback.

You need someone who can point out your mistakes, so you can course-correct.

Most people dabble on their own and wonder why they aren’t seeing results.

The reason is almost always the same: because they’ve been doing the wrong things, in the wrong way, and at the wrong time.

I had a coach when I played poker to make sure my game was constantly top-notch.

I had a coach when I built my first successful website.

And I have a coach today to keep me on track.

It’s the best investment you can make.

But even a coach cannot help you with the last factor, which underlies everything else.

Factor #5. Attitude

As Zig Ziglar puts it, “Your attitude determines your altitude.”

Your attitude is the fuel behind all the other requirements above.

When I started, I had a weak attitude. I wanted fast success, but after a few years of banging my head against a nice, shiny wall, my attitude shifted.

I’m not sure if it was from all the banging, but I’m glad it happened sooner rather than later

I had spent enough time in the kiddie pool.

It was time to get serious.

I am where I am today because of that attitude shift.

I have a successful online business that allows me the freedom to hang out with my newborn son and do whatever I want, which at this time is to learn Dutch, because my girlfriend is half Dutch.

You don’t have to be perfect to build a successful lifestyle business. You just have to have all the above factors in place, and you have to START.

Summary

Building a successful lifestyle business is like going to the gym.

You have to know what to do, when to do it, and how. Then you have to apply what you’ve learned over a period of time to see results.

And if you want to speed up your progress, having a coach never hurts.

I had no idea what I was doing when I started. I fell for the get-rich quick schemes, but I refused to give up, so here I am.

Remember the five essential factors to build a successful lifestyle business:

Right Information
Focus
Daily Practice
Feedback
Attitude

And above all, remember to take action. Every. Single. Day.

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t succeeded yet, because if you keep going, you will.

Action Steps

Your assignment for today is to implement one of the five factors into your life.

Answer the following questions:

Which one of the factors do I have the most trouble with?
How is it affecting my lifestyle business building?
What can I do to change it?
When will I do that?

It’s easy to put this off, but taking action now will get you moving closer to having more control and freedom over your life, so you can live life on your own terms.

How to Build a Lifestyle Business in 2 Hours a Day or Less

Henri — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:55:14 +0000

An excellent cake doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s carefully planned. Each ingredient goes in at the exact right time and in the exact right quantity.

A cake requires planning, and so does a lifestyle business.

However, what most people do is they try to bake a cake by throwing together random things, and then they wonder why they end up with a black ball that tastes like crap.

Even though building a business is not like following a recipe, it still requires planning, strategy, and goal setting.

Why Less Time is Better

You don’t have to quit your job to start your own online business.

The more time you have, the more time you’ll spend up messing around on trivial tasks.

It’s Parkinson’s law in action: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”

Remember in school when you had a deadline on a paper. If you were like most people, you waited until the very end to get it done.

If you have two hours a day, a strategy, and a goal, you can focus on just high-value tasks.

If you do that, you’ll get more done than most full-time internet marketers.

But before you can get anything productive done, you have to know where you’re going.

Goal Settings + Planning = Focus

Do you know what you want?

If not, you’re not alone. Most people don’t know what they want at first.

But if you don’t know what you want, how will you know when you’ve arrived?

Do you want to make $1,000/month from your lifestyle business?

When you know what you want, you can break it down into milestones, and then into daily steps.

You know what happens then, right?

You can focus on the tasks that take you closer to your goal, instead of reading blogs, chatting on Twitter, and posting pictures on Facebook.

But Planning on This Scale RARELY Happens

Because it’s hard.

If you have a vague goal, at least you have a reason why you didn’t succeed.

If you want to build a lifestyle business, you have to have a goal, a strategy, and a plan.

In essence, you have to have a blueprint that helps you focus.

This doesn’t mean that you know every step, or even that a recipe for success exists.

It means you have a clear destination in mind, and you plan as best you can.

From there, you take action and deal with life.

“But What if just Writing an Article Takes Me Three Days?”

The more you write, the faster you’ll get.

When I started, I couldn’t write more than one article every few days.

Now I can get an article like this out in about 30-60 minutes.

If writing stops you, then create a podcast, make videos, or use a voice-to-text program like DragonNaturally speaking.

The only limits that exist are the ones you impose on yourself.

“Okay 2 Hours a Day, But How Many Years is it Going to Take?”

Here’s the thing, most people don’t make progress because they’re scared of doing the very things that have the biggest impact.

They procrastinate and look for the easy way. They look for a way to sneak under the radar and avoid the discomfort.

I tried to do that, and it took me a few years to realize that the more I faced my fears, the more results I got.

This isn’t easy, but if you’re sick of shortcuts and want real results, you can build a lifestyle business in less than two hours a day.

And everything you think is stopping you is just an excuse.

When you’re ready to take action, you’ll do whatever it takes.

Summary

Baking a delicious cake that melts like butter when you put in your mouth doesn’t happen by accident, and the same holds true for building your lifestyle business.

You need a blueprint.

And you need to know where you’re going. You need to know your end destination.

From there, you break down your goal into milestones and then daily steps.

Excuses will fall to the wayside when you’re determined enough to succeed.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re working, have kids, or don’t think you’re a good writer.

If you want to do this, you can, but you have to make the commitment.

Action Steps

Today’s assignment is simple: figure out what your goal is.

The goal should be practical, and specific, but it should also stretch you (i.e. make you slightly uncomfortable).

An example could be: Build a lifestyle business in 2012 that makes $500/month through turning my advice into products and services.

That’s not the best goal, but you get the gist. Write something down and tweak it as you go.

How to Structure an Irresistible Email Opt-In Page

Henri — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:04:33 +0000

Note: This is the fifth installment of the Email Marketing 101 series.

Airplanes are one of the safest ways to travel for a reason, the pilots utilize checklists and structure.

They have to, because without them, thousands of people would die each year.

And the same is true for writing an irresistible email opt-in page.

If you don’t follow structure, and if you don’t build the best opt-in page you can, you could miss out on thousands of extra subscribers every year.

If you miss just 5 a day, that adds up to 1,825 people per year.

Luckily, there is a simple structure great email opt-in pages follow.

The structure looks like this:

Headline
Benefits
Call to Action
Opt-In

And it all begins at the top of the page.

1. The Headline

The Unstream Newsletter by Jonathan Mead

The above screenshot is from the landing page for the newsletter over at Illuminated Mind by Jonathan Mead, where he helps people live and work on their own terms.

Take a look at his headline. It’s very simple, it grabs your attention, and it gets the job done.

The headline is the most important part of your opt-in page, because if it fails to grab attention, your visitor goes bye-bye.

Writing magnetic headlines comes with practice. The more you write, the better you get, and after while, you’ll just know when a headline feels right, kind of like being in touch with the force.

Most people write the headline in 5 minutes, but you’re smarter than that, aren’t you?

You’re going to spend at least half of the time on your headline, because you know that it is what will make or break your newsletter landing page.

2. The Benefits

I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

Take a look at the landing page from I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi above.

He uses bullet points to grab your attention and get the benefits across quickly. I do the same on my email opt-in page.

When a potential subscriber lands on your opt-in page, they’re going to be focused on one thing and one thing only, and that is: what’s in it for me?

That’s where bullet points come in. They grab attention, fast.

If you write them correctly.

3. The Call to Action (CTA)

Smart Passive Income by Pat Flynn

Once you have around 3-5 powerful bullet points, it’s time to time for your call to action.

You can see a perfect example of a non-pushy call to action by Pat Flynn above on his landing page for eBooks the Smart Way.

A solid call to action gives instructions on what to do next.

The only rule for your call to action is that it has to be crystal clear. Tell people exactly what you want them to do next.

4. The Opt-In Form

The final step is to put an opt-in form below your call to action. It wouldn’t make much sense otherwise, would it?

And we don’t really need a screenshot for this one, do we?

If you use Aweber, or any high-quality email service provider, they’ll give you a simple code you can copy and paste onto your email opt-in page.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, just a simple form that captures name and email.

And that, my friend, is the basic structure of an irresistible landing page for your newsletter. Simple, isn’t it?

You can always add testimonials once you get them, but for now, stick to the basics.

Summary

Creating an irresistible opt-in page is not hard. It takes structure and hard work, but anyone can do it.

And the more you practice, the better you get.

Just follow this simple structure:

Headline
Benefits
Call to Action
Opt-In Form

Get it out there, test, and tweak.

Action Steps

If your opt-in page is, shall we say, less stellar, then look at my opt-in page and others around the web, and improve it.

Open a document, map out the main structure we talked about above and fill in the blanks.

Tell people why they should sign-up and what they get.

Keep it as simple as possible at first, and then add to it. This will minimize overwhelm and frustration.

Why Nobody is Signing Up to Your Email Newsletter (And What to Do About It)

Henri — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:09:25 +0000

Note: This is the fourth installment of the Email Marketing 101 series.

A few minutes after I sent out the email, sales began trickling in for my newest product.

Just a few days later I had over 100 sales and more coming in, and I knew I couldn’t have had the same amount of success without an email newsletter filled with people who were interested in what I have to say.

Building an email list is as important to a lifestyle business as proper nutrition is to your body. You can live without it (for a time), but you’ll struggle.

It used to be enough to tell people you had a newsletter to get them to sign-up, but those days are long gone.

If you want to have a successful newsletter, you need a strategy that gets people interested enough to subscribe.

Are there steps you can take to make that happen?

And why do newsletters fail in the first place?

Let’s explore those questions, shall we?

Why Your Newsletter Fails

Imagine you land on a blog you’ve never been to before. It has some interesting content but it doesn’t WOW you.

Then you see the newsletter opt-in form in the sidebar, and all it says is, “Join Our Newsletter for Exclusive Tips!”

Does it grab your attention?

Does it answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”

Nope, not really.

So, can you make your newsletter call to action so irresistible that people drool over it?

And if so, how?

How to Engineer the Drool Factor

Engineering interest (and drool) takes a bit more work than most are willing to put in, but it’s well worth it, because you want people to actually sign up to your newsletter, right?

In order to engineer interest, you have to give people something for their time and effort for signing up.

This could be a free 15-page report, a 20-minute audio podcast, a short video presentation, or even an email autoresponder series.

It doesn’t have to be big, but it has to be focused.

It has to solve ONE problem, and it has to do it quickly. It provides instant gratification, so people sign-up, consume, and want more.

What Does This Look Like in Reality?

It’s quite simple, really.

Create a specific gift you can give away to people when they sign-up to your newsletter.

Then communicate the benefits of that gift, so you make people want to sign-up to see what you’ve got.

If you deliver, and they consume your free gift, they’ll want more, because finding people who know what they’re doing is hard these days.

There’s too much information, and a lot of it is fluff, and if it isn’t fluff, it’s overwhelming, so keep it short and sweet.

Focus on One Specific Problem

The biggest email marketing mistake you can make is to create a sign-up bonus that is too broad.

What you want is to solve a very specific problem.

Don’t think writing, think writing viral headlines for blog posts.

Don’t think losing weight, think the 7 foods that pack on fat (and how to eliminate them from your life).

Keep it very, very simple.

Isn’t This Just a Marketing Trick?

Is it a trick if I tell you to come over for a delicious Swedish dinner, or is it just a friendly gesture?

Sure, giving people something in exchange for signing up to your newsletter can be used as a trick, but it can also be used in a positive way.

If you’re helping people, which I hope you are, it’s up to you to get people to sign-up, consume your stuff, and improve their life.

Summary

Let’s do a quick flashback to what we’ve just learned.

Most newsletters fail because there’s no reason to sign up. Don’t just tell people to sign-up, give them something specific that will help them right away.

But that isn’t enough, you also have to communicate the value of your free gift. It has to be specific, helpful, and quick to read.

It’s up to you to get people to sign-up and learn.

In the next installment in this series, we’ll cover how to create an irresistible email opt-in page to get people to subscribe to your newsletter.

If you want to make sure you don’t miss it, sign-up for updates!

What Next?

The next step is simple.

Answer the following question:

What kind of gift could you create that solves one problem in your market and is relevant to your readers?

Think laser-specific, and think small.

You can always tweak it later, but for now, focus on taking action and getting it done.

5 Stupid Email Marketing Mistakes You Should Never Make

Henri — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:48:42 +0000

Note: This is the third installment of the Email Marketing 101 series.

When you were a baby, you made a lot of mistakes.

You learned to walk by falling over a gazillion times.

You hit your head, you cried, and you learned to be more careful, so your brain wouldn’t leak out.

You put things in your mouth. Some of it tasted good, while some didn’t.

We’re learning machines, yet most people avoid making mistakes. It isn’t fun, but it leads to success.

There are plenty of mistakes you can make in email marketing that can ruin your efforts.

The good news is that you don’t have to make them, at least not the biggest ones, because we’ll cover them right now.

1. Strategic Failure

When I started my email list for this blog, I had no goal for the list.

I had hopes, but no goals.

The best way to avoid strategic failure is to know where you’re taking your subscriber.

Imagine yourself as the captain of the ship.

You have to know where you’re setting sail.

Most email newsletters are in la-la land, because they have no idea what they ultimately want to accomplish.

When you sign-up to my list, you get a report on building a lifestyle business, and I follow up with excellent content on the same topic.

There’s a strategy in place.

2. Where’s the Cookie?

A cookie is what you give someone when they first sign-up to your email list.

In my case, it’s the lifestyle business report.

It entices people to sign-up, because it’s not enough to just say “Hey, sign-up for my newsletter, it’s pretty awesome.”

A cookie is usually short, and easy-to-digest. It gives a fresh subscriber instant gratification.

It’s not randomly thrown together. Even though it’s short, it has to be packed with value, because that is what delights subscribers.

And when you delight people, they want to hear more from you.

3. Landing Page Horror

A landing page is a page dedicated solely to getting you to sign-up to the newsletter.

It “sells” the free stuff.

A great landing page communicates how your cookie and newsletter can help.

We’ll go into more depth in a future installment on landing pages, but for now, keep it as short as possible, while communicating what people get and why they should care.

In short: what’s in it for them?

4. Where’s Your Personality?

Most email newsletters, like blogs, are bland and easily forgotten.

You can avoid blending into the noise by letting your personality shine through.

Your subscribers want to connect with a human being, not with a website or a logo.

You may be afraid of putting yourself out there, and that’s fine. But in the end you have to decide whether you want to let your fears, or other people, dictate your life.

The ball is always in your hands.

5. Following Rules

Following rules is a virus that infects every aspect of life. It sucks the life out of your soul.

Even though I write as if there are rules to email marketing, there aren’t.

There are merely guidelines, just like with everything else in life.

If an expert tells you to send a newsletter to your email list every day, and it feels like too much, don’t do it.

You don’t have to follow every single piece of advice.

We build a lifestyle business to do what we enjoy, not to create another way to follow someone else’s rules.

Summary

There are a lot of mistakes you can make in email marketing, but mistakes are what you learn from, so don’t go out of your way to avoid them.

You can significantly increase the profitability and receptivity of your newsletter by following these simple tips:

Have a goal for your newsletter
Create a cookie that fits in with that goal
Communicate what you have to offer with a landing page
Put your personality into what you do and express yourself (quirks and all)
Beware of letting yourself be governed by other people’s rules

And even though you don’t have to make all the mistakes a baby makes, you will still make them, because that’s how we learn.

Action Steps

Here’s what I want you to do next.

Pick one mistake and look at how it applies to what you’re doing.

Yes, just one.

Then ask yourself the following questions and write down the answers:

How does this apply to me?
What am I doing “wrong?”
What one thing could I improve from what I’ve just read?
How am I going to implement it?
When am I going to implement it?

Focus on one mistake and one improvement at a time.

How to Pick the Perfect Email Marketing Service Provider for Your Lifestyle Business

Henri — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 13:58:27 +0000

Note: This is the second installment of the Email Marketing 101 series.

Imagine for a moment that you’re in the process of cooking a delicious meal for a room of 500. You’re in the kitchen, and you’re creating some of your best stuff.

But then, uh oh.

The electricity runs out, you hear something explode in the oven, and a dog gets into the kitchen and eats up a big chunk of the main meal and a piece of the cake.

You could blame it all on luck, but you realize that it could’ve been prevented.

The same holds true for picking the best email marketing service provider.

Pick the wrong one, and you may end up with an incident.

Pick the right one, and you may end up saving yourself a lot of grief.

When you’re running a lifestyle business, you want everything to run smoothly, because the more you have to micro-manage the process, the less time you have to live life.

That’s why I don’t go shopping for the cheapest email marketing service provider. I find the best fit for me. This doesn’t mean I buy the most expensive, just something that works.

Many opt for cheaper solutions, but what they don’t realize is that the money they save they’ll make up for in wasted time and possibly other horrors, which we’ll go through in this article.

So, How Can You Circumvent Disaster?

First, you realize that cheaper isn’t always better. You have to take into account the whole picture, which means the big three:

1) High Deliverability, so your emails reach their destination.

2) Ease of Use, so you can get it on your website or blog quickly without frustration.

3) Support, just in case something goes wrong, you can get help fast.

Let’s look at each of these three factors in detail and see what they really mean, because just saying “look for high deliverability,” isn’t going to help you, is it?

How to Make Sure Your Emails Reach Their Destination

Great email marketing service providers make sure your email reaches its destination by having great relations with ISP’s or internet service providers, which means they ensure they aren’t banned or blocked by any ISP.

They have strict standards for what emails you are allowed to send out. You can’t spam people or go crazy, but you can give value and help.

If an email marketing provider allows someone to get away with shady behavior, it can affect everyone using the service, so a great provider will make sure only good stuff goes on and that everyone is happy with their service.

“Okay, I Got It. What About Ease of Use?”

Have you ever used a piece of software and given up in frustration because it just doesn’t make sense, and nothing seems to work? I’ve been there and done that, and it induces baldness, so I try to avoid it.

That’s why any provider you use has to be easy to navigate.

A great email marketing provider has to be intuitive to use in every aspect from putting a web form on your blog to creating emails that help you communicate with your subscribers.

It could even have a WordPress plugin that you can use to get things going with a few clicks.

And even if you run into trouble, you should have no trouble getting help.

Which Brings Us to Great Customer Service

I value companies with fantastic customer support.

I know I’ll run into trouble at some point, and I want someone to help me ASAP, so I don’t end up wasting time.

Sometimes I get stuck, and being able to email, call, or chat live with support is something I appreciate.

When you go for cheap options, it may seem smart in the short-term, but all the disadvantages add up.

That’s what I’ve found in my years of using different services online.

Is There a Service Provider That Has All of the Above?

Yes.

Now, obviously there are multiple email marketing service providers out there, so you’ll want to see what fits with you.

But when it comes to a hassle-free provider that delivers when it matters, I trust Aweber and have been using them since 2007 with great results and no problems.

If you want to save yourself shopping time, I recommend you go with them.

What If I Can’t Afford It?

Aweber costs $19 per month on their lowest tier at the time of writing this.

If you think it’s too much, you should reconsider what you’re doing, because when you’re clear about what you want to accomplish, you can make $19 or more easily.

You can write articles for others. You can put out a small product to your audience, or you can offer a group coaching program.

The only reason you wouldn’t want to invest the money is because you’re not ready to take real action.

If you’re not serious about building a lifestyle business, then any investment is too much.

Summary

A lot of things can go wrong with a poor email marketing service.

You can build a big list, but never have your emails reach their destination.

You can run into technical problems, which induce frustration and waste your time.

You can have trouble with customer support, and you’re left to figure things out on your own.

All of this can be avoided by doing your due diligence and finding a provider that fits what you want to do.

Remember, cheap isn’t always the best. We’re not here to save money. We’re here to build a lifestyle business that increases the freedom in our lives and gives us more control.

You want to serve that delicious meal you’ve created for your customers and not to the dog, right?

What’s Next

With all this information in your head, what now?

Well, now you sign-up to an email service provider, because starting with the next installment in this series, we’ll start looking at how to build your list and avoid some of the most common mistakes.

Your only step for today is to take action and find a provider you like.

That’s all.

See you soon!

What Email Marketing is and How it Helps You Build a Lifestyle Business

Henri — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 11:52:54 +0000

Note: This is the first installment of the Email Marketing 101 series.

When I started learning about online marketing in late 2006, I heard about email marketing and how important it was to build a list.

I heard about the “gurus” making thousands when they sent off an email to their list. It seemed great, but I could never figure out how I could apply the same principles without putting people off.

When I finally started this blog, I also started one of my first email lists, and my first emails were horrible. I made dozens and dozens of mistakes.

But it was through trial and error that I learned, and in this email marketing series, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned, so you can skip the learning curve.

Building a list is one of the most important things you can do when you’re building a lifestyle business. I can’t stress that enough, so I’ll say it again.

Building a list is one of the most important things you can do.

Most information out there on email marketing is overwhelming, because people aren’t good at presenting information, but this isn’t rocket science.

I’ll focus on the 20% that give you 80% of the results, but before I get ahead of myself, let’s look at what email marketing is and how it can help you build a lifestyle business.

What Exactly is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is simply the practice of building an email list, staying in touch with your readers, sending them great stuff, and making fantastic offers that solve their problems.

There’s nothing fancy about it.

You never spam people, because they can sign up or unsubscribe whenever they want.

It’s completely permission based.

7 Benefits of Using Email Marketing

What does email marketing have to do with building a lifestyle business and increasing the freedom in your life?

Quite a lot.

I resisted building a list for a long time, because I didn’t know what to do. Don’t fall into that trap, because it’ll end up costing you in the long-run.

1. Control

The first benefit is control. If you just use something like Feedburner to handle your blog subscriptions, your subscribers will get your blog posts but not much more.

With a list, you can send out a message whenever you want, and you have complete control over your list. It belongs to you. Not even Google can take it away.

2. Speed

If you have a launch coming up, or if you want to make a quick offer, you can have an email in the inbox of your readers within minutes.

Obviously, you should plan stuff, but if you want to send out a spur of the moment email or give people a Christmas gift, it comes in handy.

3. Automation

One of my favorite benefits of email marketing is the autoresponder, which is a tool that allows you to automate what emails your readers receive.

For example, when you join my email list and confirm your subscription, you instantly receive my free report, and after about a week, you receive a free teleseminar, and then more goodies if you stay on my list.

All this happens automatically. I can add a new message to the sequence and my subscribers keep getting good stuff from me.

4. Testing

When you have a list, and you use a great service provider like Aweber (I’ll talk about how to find the best email marketing service in the next installment of this series), you can see who opens your emails, how often they click on links, and so on.

It gives you invaluable data on what kind of content your readers like, what kind of links they click, and what kind of headlines resonate with them.

5. Cost

If you compare email marketing to traditional direct mail advertising, it’s amazingly cheap, but still many bloggers hold out, because they don’t want to invest.

And it’s one of the biggest mistakes they make.

A good email marketing service is usually around $19/month, and you get everything from support and autoresponders to in-depth analytics and easy-to-install WordPress plugins.

6. Long-Term Relationships

When people join your list, and you take care of them, it builds trust and you can build a long-term relationship with your readers.

Many of my readers have been on my list for over two years. Email is just a more intimate form of communication than someone reading your blog via an RSS feed.

If someone has a question, they can hit reply on my emails and I’ll get back to them within 24 hours.

7. Research

If you don’t know what your readers want, you can’t help them, and you won’t have a business.

You can’t create products and services in a vacuum, you have to listen, and email marketing gives you the perfect platform to do just that.

I often ask questions, send out surveys, and do other things to learn what’s going on with my subscribers, because I’m curious as to how I can make things better.

I’m sure there are many more benefits, and if I’ve left any out, feel free to let me know in the comments.

So, How Does It Support a Lifestyle Business?

If that big list of benefits above didn’t convince you, then I don’t know what will. Perhaps you should re-read it and see what happens?

Email marketing gives you the opportunity to treat your readers like VIP’s.

It helps you stay in touch with them and forge deeper, more meaningful connections.

And you can automate the process with an autoresponder. I don’t automate everything with my list, but I try to do it as much as possible, because it saves up time for me to develop more great content, products and services.

Building a lifestyle business is all about making a living while increasing the freedom in your life, and building a list is one vital component in that process.

When is the Best Time to Start a List?

You should have a list ready when you launch your blog.

If you’ve already launched, you should start planning what you can offer people as a bonus when they sign-up.

All of this may seem overwhelming, but don’t worry. I’ll go over the finer details in this series, and I’ll give you action steps you can take to eliminate overwhelm.

Information is useless unless you apply it, and my job is to help you take action, not just mindlessly consume more information.

Summary

Let’s wrap this post up, so you can remember what you’ve just read.

I started by telling you about my story with email marketing, and how I resisted it in the beginning. When I finally got into it, I made more mistakes than I’d care to admit, but I’m happy I finally took the leap.

It was a tough ride, but my list is what brings in the majority of my income.

Then we looked at the benefits of building your own list and how it helps you stay in touch with your readers, build long-term relationships, and figure out what people want, just to name a few things.

And as we began wrapping up, I told you about how using the right email service provider helps you automate the process, which is crucial when building a lifestyle business.

Last, but not least, you shouldn’t put off starting a list. Start one now. The only reason you’d put it off is because you’re not serious about building an online business, and if you want to keep it as a hobby, that’s cool with me.

There’s a lot more to come in this series, so remember to subscribe and claim your goodies. If you’re curious about what’s coming, you can see the list here.

Action Steps

Each article in this series will contain a series of action steps to give you clear guidance on what to do, when to do it, and how, so you can implement what you learn and see real results.

Today, there’s not much for you to do, but I’d still like you to think about how you can use email marketing in what you do.

If you don’t have a blog or website yet, you should start one right away and learn as you go.

There are no excuses.

Get to work!

How I Went From 0 to 1,012 Blog Subscribers in 101 Days

Henri — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 07:00:19 +0000

[Note: This post was originally published in March 17, 2010, but I have rewritten and revised it to add new details and insights. Enjoy.]

It took me 101 days to hit 1,012 subscribers. I did it by using a very simple strategy that was free from overwhelm and stress.

Most bloggers never get past the 1,000 subscriber mark, or create a profitable online business, not because they aren’t good, but because they are afraid to use the most effective tools available.

I worked hard during those 101 days, but I loved every second of it. Looking back, I can still see where I made mistakes, but making mistakes is not the problem, not taking action is.

If you can consistently take action, you will achieve your goals.

And the way to consistently have the fuel to take action is to find and follow your passion.

We all have something like this inside of us.

If you can find a topic you could die for, you’re on the right track. If someone had a gun to your head and you had to choose one topic to write about for the next few years, what would you choose?

1. Finding My Passion

In November 2009 I had been contemplating starting what would become Wake Up Cloud and following my true passion. In the early days I wrote mainly about personal development, but as people got wind of the fact that I made a living online, I started writing more about online business, and it evolved from there.

I wasn’t always clear about my passion. Earlier in 2009, I wanted to start a blog about health, personal development, and money. I jotted down some ideas, but I succumbed to my own excuses and never took action.

I went back to building websites that made money. I hoped that if I only had enough money, I could do what I loved. And on top of that, in early 2009, I was still playing poker, but it was slowly eroding my soul.

The money was good, but there’s more to life than money.

I wanted to do something else.

Around March-April of 2009 I stopped playing poker cold-turkey and haven’t played a hand of poker since. I forced myself to work on my website at the time and make it more profitable. While I wasn’t following my true passion, I was writing about topics I was interested in.

It was a step in the right direction.

During the months leading up to November 2009, I was constantly thinking about what I would want to write about. What did I do all day when I wasn’t working on my websites?

It was a slow process. The answer I kept getting was online business and personal development.

When the end of 2009 came, I had already built up a solid income stream from my websites that could keep me alive while I was learning how to blog. I realized that building any kind of income online would take a long time. I was okay with that, because I was going to write on a topic I was passionate about.

I was also very interested in natural health, but I knew I had to pick one main topic to be successful. I could always build a blog around natural health later on. I hesitated for a while, until one morning I had a dream that basically sent me the message “don’t wait, start NOW!”

I woke up confused. It was one of those dreams you just can’t seem to shake off. It was vivid in my mind and I took it as a kick in my ass to get started, so I did . . .

2. Modeling What Works

I credit my poker success to all the coaches I’ve had during the years. When I hired my first poker coach in early 2005, I instantly fell in love (not in the coach ). While it wasn’t cheap, it helped me improve my game tremendously.

I used the same strategy in blogging and online business. I remembered earlier that year that I had thought about hiring Chris Garrett. I didn’t think much of it at that time. One day, out of the blue, I received an e-mail from Chris where he announced he was opening his course, Authority Blogger.

To be honest, at that point I had been subscribed to Chris’ blog but I never read his articles, which is why what was about to happen was very weird. When I received that e-mail, I knew that this was what I wanted. When I looked through the offer I saw that Chris offered comprehensive e-mail support. I was sold.

I have never thought twice about finding a mentor and paying them for helping me. It helps me avoid common mistakes and most important of all, it helps me reach my goals at a much more rapid pace.

Would I have been able to reach 1,012 blog subscribers in 101 days without joining a course?

I highly doubt it.

As I started blogging, I had a lot of questions, which were answered rapidly by Chris and it helped me stay on course. I had the same problems as any new blogger would have. I wanted to chase every new shiny object that came across my path, but I knew that if I wanted to succeed, I had to stay focused.

3. Planning My Attack

Before I even started my blog, I thought about things like:

What did I want to achieve?
How did I want to achieve it?
Who was my target audience?
How often did I want to post?
How was I going to get traffic?
How was I going to keep readers interested?
Did I want to make money with my blog?
How was I going to produce a profit?

There are many more questions you should think about when you’re starting your blog. Naturally, all of these questions can be overwhelming to consider, which is why it’s good to have someone nearby who can help clear up confusion.

I already knew my passion, but I had a lot of work ahead of me to write out what I really wanted to achieve. It’s easy to ignore the planning process and jump right in, but going through and writing down your goals can bring a lot of clarity to your writing and business.

It’s not enough to start a blog. You have to know who you’re helping and what you’re helping them with. This is where most people fail.

And it’s something I overlooked in the beginning, which was a mistake, but I kept going, and that’s key. You won’t get this perfect right off the bat, but you have to keep going anyway.

I thought about who my ideal reader/customer was. It was someone I’d like to hang out with in real life, which meant they would be interested in weird stuff, and they would be determined to succeed.

After all this it was time to write down my strategy.

How was I going to get traffic?

I was going to guest post.

I didn’t know when I was going to write my first guest post. I just knew I wanted to do it.

It’s all well and good to get traffic, but how was I going to turn them into subscribers?

The best option was to use a sign-up incentive, which is basically a bribe you give people for signing up. This would help me get people on my e-mail list, which would help me engage the people that were serious about building an advice-based online business.

There are a lot of e-mail list services out there. I personally have used Aweber for several years and haven’t had problems with them. I recommend you do some comparisons do find a service that resonates with you, but if you want my recommendation, go with Aweber.

At this point I didn’t really know how I was going to help people by creating products and services.

What I did know was that there were a lot of people out there struggling with making a living online and following their passion. I was making it happen, and I had already helped a few people make money online, so I was confident I could lend a helping hand.

4. Executing My Strategy

Writing and planning is cool, but nothing happens until you take action. I knew what I wanted with my blog and I knew how I was going to achieve it. I have always hated planning, so I try to skip it every chance I get, but in this instance I really discovered how much clarity it can bring to whatever I am doing.

Just knowing what I was going to do and how I was going to do it gave me certainty and confidence to take massive action. I basically had everything written down, so I knew the steps I needed to take to make progress.

I was scared a lot of the time.

I was scared before I started my blog.

I was scared when I put my first blog post up.

I was scared when I wrote my first comment.

And I was scared when I submitted my first guest post to a big blog.

Those were the good old days, and I’ve since realized that there’s not much to be scared of. You take action, you keep going, and you push through the discomfort.

There’s a lot of information you can follow. There are thousands of blogs, courses, and training programs.

But which one of them is right for you?

And how do you even know they give you the best information?

That’s why I recommend you get a coach, and that’s why I have a coach even now when I have thousands of subscribers.

If you’re just starting out, chances are you will make a lot of mistakes, and you won’t make progress as fast as you want to. That’s normal. Expect it, and then take even more action.

Many of my coaching clients are worried about what other’s will think of them. I experienced that in the beginning, too, but then again, are you going to let that fear hold you back from building a business around your passions?

People will think what they think. There will always be people that are unhappy and take it out on you.

It’s not personal, so why care?

Do what you feel excited about and let other people wallow in misery if they want to.

The more passionate you are about a subject, the harder you’ll work and the higher chances are that you will succeed.

5. Guest Posting

After I got my first guest post published and saw the traffic it brought to my website, I was hooked. I recognized the power of guest blogging and I made guest posting my main strategy for getting traffic, links and subscribers to my blog.

It is one of the reasons why I have grown so fast. I haven’t kept track of all my guest posts, but during these 101 days, I wrote close to 50 guest posts on various blogs. Some brought me ten visitors while others brought me a thousand.

I started by guest posting on the smaller blogs, because I was a bit intimidated of having my writing on the bigger ones. Once I got comfortable writing more and more, I started approaching bigger blogs. After a while I realized that my fears were unfounded.

All the blog owners I got in touch with were incredibly friendly.

Here’s a tip if you’re starting out and want to grow fast: get over your fears and go for the biggest blogs, because that’s where you’ll get 80% of the results with 20% of the effort.

Stop tip-toeing around your fears and take them head on. They are just ideas in your head.

You don’t have to guest post on 50 blogs, you just need a few big ones and you’ll have 1,000 subscribers in half the time that I did it.

If you’re sitting there wondering why you aren’t getting traffic to your blog, it’s most likely because you aren’t putting in the work. I made my fears insignificant by having an important purpose and following my passion.

You can do the same.

6. Adapting to Circumstances

As with anything, your plan won’t be flawless. You will have to adapt your approach over and over again. When I had written for a few months, I realized that something was wrong. I felt bad writing and I got writer’s block.

When you get writer’s block, it’s usually because you’re focusing on you, instead of your readers.

You don’t have to come up with topics to write about, you just have to listen to your readers and clients.

What questions are they asking?

What are they struggling with?

Where do they get stuck, and why?

Just because your initial enthusiasm runs out doesn’t mean you should quit blogging. I see a lot of new, promising bloggers quit because of this.

They just don’t have the stamina to keep going.

This is not for everyone. To be honest, it seems like it’s not for most people, because they’re not ready to face their fears and take action when the going gets tough.

How did I deal with this?

I took things one day at a time. Sure, I felt overwhelmed and confused, but I kept doing what I could do.

One action every day will get you a lot further than letting your fears control your life, even if that action is in the wrong direction.

7. Staying Focused

One of the most obvious traits of successful blogs is their consistency. It takes time to build a blog readership, which means you have to be in it for the long haul.

When I first wrote this article, I wrote “I know I’m probably not going to make close to a living for at least a few years from this blog, which is fine by me, because I really like what I’m doing, whether I get paid or not.”

I said that mainly because I was deluding myself, but also because I was already making a living from my other websites, so life was good.

How was I deluding myself?

I was taking the easy road, because I wasn’t focused on my blog as a business. I just focused on writing and having fun. If you want a business, you have to sell stuff, and I wasn’t ready for that then.

It’s been a long journey, but I’ve come around. I’ve learned a lot, and that experience translates to my coaching clients, because I can help them shave years off their learning curve.

Don’t worry about making mistakes, because what matters it that you do something. I knew I wasn’t doing things optimally in the beginning, but I still kept going, because I had no other choice.

I refused to give up.

And that’s why you’re reading the second edition of this article.

So, what are you waiting for?

Whether you want to build a business or a popular blog, the time is now.

The stars will never align.

Photo Credit

The Renaissance Guide to Creating a Wildly Successful Online Business

Henri — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:04:22 +0000

Note: Have you signed up to the free Passion Calls yet? If you want to turn your passions into a real business and lifestyle, check it out here.

What does fifteenth-century Italy have to do with building a successful online business?

Quite a lot.

During the fifteenth-century, a banking family in Florence, Italy, called the Medicis, decided to fund artists, scientists, and creatives to come together to share what they knew.

They wanted to cultivate ideas, creativity, and innovation by bringing together people from different disciplines. This gave way to something we today call the Renaissance, one of the most innovative eras of history.

It happened because of what Frans Johansson calls the intersection of ideas in his book, the Medici Effect.

When ideas from different disciplines come together, magic happens, because sometimes the solution to a problem already exists, but not where you’re looking.

So I began to wonder, could this be applied to online business?

I turns out that it can.

Having many different passions is not a disadvantage, it’s an advantage, because it is what makes you unique, and gives you a fresh perspective.

I don’t just talk about online business on this blog. I also blend in my personality and love for personal development, because it’s a big piece of the pie when it comes to living a free, and happy life.

What Makes a Business Remarkable?

For a long time, I didn’t know what made what I did unique, and I still don’t know it all.

But what I’ve noticed is that I gravitate toward blogs and businesses that put their personality into what they do. They share their story.

An honest, relevant, and entertaining story gets my attention.

The more I share my story, the more I’ve found people connecting with me, and sharing my content.

It’s inevitable that I will exclude some people when I share my opinions, beliefs, and thoughts, but that’s okay. They’ll find a better fit elsewhere.

If you are afraid of sharing who you really are, you’ll have a tough time standing out. People want to hear your story, and learn from your mistakes.

They want to be taken on an adventure.

What is the Destination of Your Adventure?

This isn’t about randomly blending your passions and interests together to create a unique ball of awesome.

The focus should always be on your visitor/customer. What is the destination you are taking them to?

Imagine that you’re a travel company. You sell people tickets so they can go from zero to hero in whatever you help them with.

In my case, it’s lifestyle, personal development and business. My travel company takes you from a life you hate to a life of freedom, peace, and happiness.

Another example is Steve Kamb from Nerd Fitness. He blends together fitness with “nerdiness.”

He takes people from flab to fit, but he does it in his own way. Each article he writes takes his audience closer to their goals. It adds to their life, while he throws in references to Star Wars and Superman.

What is the destination you want to take people toward?

When you have that, you’ll see how many of your passions fit in.

I could be a boring online business guy, but when I blend in my other passions, I create something that no one else can create.

How to Turn Multiple Passions Into a Lifestyle Business

When I started Wake Up Cloud, I was already making a living online, so I wasn’t in a rush to make money.

My goal was to create a blog that gave me as much wiggle room as possible. If you have time and money, it’s a fun way to experiment and see how things go, but make sure you avoid the most common mistakes.

My three main interests were:

Health/Fitness
Personal Development
Online Business

At first, I wanted to include health and fitness, but I decided against it, because it would dilute my focus too much.

And I knew I could always add health and fitness at a later point.

When I looked at what I gravitated towards in my life, it was always toward being able to do what I want, when I want, and from where I want, while feeling a sense of peace.

I’ve always wanted freedom both internally and externally. Most people only focus on the external, but that doesn’t guarantee happiness.

So I took both online business and personal development, and I blended them into what I do now. It may seem like this was the plan from the beginning, but it wasn’t.

I learned as I went along. I experimented, tweaked, had new ideas, and took action.

But before I started Wake Up Cloud, something stopped me for a long time.

The Biggest Obstacle (And How I Overcame It)

I spent a few years thinking about starting this blog.

I saw big personal development and online business bloggers already doing what I wanted to do.

“I don’t have anything to add. How could I top these guys?” I thought to myself.

But it isn’t about topping anyone, because when you blend your personality and weirdness into your what you do in a relevant way, it becomes unique.

Another thing I’ve noticed with my clients is that they expect to succeed on the first try, so they want to get everything perfect.

It isn’t happening. Give it up. Most Plan A’s fail.

The key is to take action, experiment, and course correct.

Sometimes you have to get so sick and tired of your own excuses that you take action. This is what happened to me.

I didn’t care if someone was better than me. I started anyway, because I wasn’t going to let anything or anyone stand in my way of doing what I loved, not even myself .

Are You Afraid of Putting Yourself Out There?

Most of my coaching clients have a habit of hiding who they really are. They are afraid of putting themselves out there, so they write bland articles and create products no one cares about.

People want to connect with a human being; someone that has fears, worries, and anxieties just like they do.

If you refuse to do that, you’ll drown in the sea of noise that is the internet.

I began by putting myself out there gradually. At first, my articles were somewhat bland, but as I wrote more, I put more of myself in my articles, and I discovered that the fear was just that, a fear, an idea in my head with no grounding in reality.

If you’re not absolutely determined to make this work, you’ll give up at the first sign of trouble.

I can usually tell when someone emails me if they’re determined. You can see it in the words they use, how specific they are in what they want, and how willing they are to take action.

I always reply, but I never hear from most again. What happens to them? Do they go off into their old patterns because they didn’t find a quick fix?

I don’t know.

I enjoy helping people who take action, but unfortunately, they are few and far between.

This isn’t about being fearless, because fear is a natural human emotion.

It isn’t going away anytime soon.

It’s about taking action despite the fear; learning to use your fear as your ally.

Being an entrepreneur and making a living in an unconventional way still scares me, but I love it.

It’s the fastest path to personal development.

The Art of the Panic Attack

Entrepreneurship constantly pushes you to improve and learn.

You have to learn how your mind works and get through whatever obstacle comes on your path, because if you don’t, you might as well apply for a job at McDonalds, and you don’t want that.

When you start out, you’ll hit what I call the freak out zone.

When you take action for the first time, all of your fears will come to the surface trying to pull you back to your comfort zone.

This happened to me when I started Wake Up Cloud, but I was determined, because I had failed so many times before.

I refused to stop. I took one step at a time, and I did my best, because that’s all I could do.

It turned out pretty okay, since you’re reading this. Maybe it’ll work for you, too?

I see this happen over and over again with my newer online business coaching clients.

We have our initial strategy session to see what’s going on and what’s next.

After that I usually get a very long email that goes something like this:

“I think I’ll wait a bit and take things slow, focus on design and improve my writing.”
“I’m not sure about the topic, so I think I’ll read books for a year and explore.”
“I don’t feel absolutely great about this, maybe this isn’t the right thing for me?”
“I think I’d be better at something else, so I’ll keep looking.”
“I don’t have the time. Maybe in a few years I can do what I love.”

And I know they’re freaking out.

This is where I slap them in the face (gently, of course), and get them back on track.

I look at what’s really the problem (fear, usually), and we handle it.

When you reach this space, it means you’re making progress, and that you’re about to break through, so your mind is trying to sell you lies to keep you stuck.

Don’t believe them.

Say hi to the fears and recognize that they are there, but do not fuel them.

Keep your focus on what you can do right here and now.

Magic Pills Sold Out

A wildly successful online business doesn’t just happen. It takes hard work, determination, and action.

If you take nothing else from this article, let it be this: blending together your passions and putting your personality into what you do is absolutely essential in creating a successful online business that people love.

And besides, it’s a lot more fun to piss off some people and fully express yourself. There’s no need to hide.

You didn’t come to this world to make excuses, seek comfort, and stability.

You came here to do something that sets your heart on fire.

When are you going to start?

Tomorrow?

How about now?

Oh and by the way, the first of the Passion Calls is happening on Wednesday, you may want to check that out here.

The Passion Calls: Free Teleseminar Series to Help You Build an Advice-Based Online Business Around Your Passions

Henri — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:17:06 +0000

The first of three teleseminars has been held, but read on to get the recording to the first one and get on board to the next call.

This teleseminar series can be accessed via the phone, webcast, or Skype, so anyone can attend, from anywhere, with ease.

The Passion Calls is designed to help you get started on the right path by learning from the mistakes I’ve made.

As always, there are no invisible strings, hooks, or obligations attached when you attend.

This teleseminar series is 100% free.

And for those who can’t attend, recordings shall be generously handed out.

You can expect lots of valuable content on what I’ve learned during the years I’ve been doing this. I’ve made mistakes, spent thousands, wasted a lot of time, and I’m sharing it with you in hopes that you can avoid it better than I did

It’s not an easy path, but it definitely is possible, as you will see.

Third Call Details

The first two calls are over. When you sign-up below, you’ll get a recording of both instantly, and you’ll also be notified of the third call, which will be the best yet.

Why? Because it’ll be about how to get paid to do what you love, and how to avoid the most common pitfalls that keep people stuck.

Specific details for the third call do not exist yet, but below are some vague ones to keep you satisfied

Date: Sometime in Mid-Feb, 2012
Time: 12 Noon EST (9AM PST, 5PM UK)
Length: 60 Minutes (with 20 Minutes Q&A)
Teleseminar Details: Sign-up below to learn more

5 Outcomes You Can Expect from This Series

More clarity on what to do when it comes to discovering your passion and building a business around it. No more being overwhelmed, confused, and stumbling around not getting the results you want.
A dramatic increase in your confidence when it comes to taking action, dealing with fears, and just plain moving forward, because it’s through action that you will learn and grow.
Make faster progress not only in discovering what you want to do, but how to get paid to do what you love. Most people (myself included) make huge mistakes here that end up setting them back years and thousands of dollars.
Make consistent progress, because we both know how hard it can be to keep going after that initial burst of enthusiasm. You will freak out, but you can keep moving and checking off milestones when you learn how.
Have fun while building your business, because most people take this way too seriously. We’re here to explore, experiment, and learn from each other’s mistakes. You’ll come out of the calls feeling inspired and uplifted, ready to take action.

What to Do Next

First of all, if you’re interested in these calls, I’m sure you know someone else who is, too. I’d appreciate it if you shared this on Twitter, Facebook, or in whatever way you think will spread the word.

The reason I have a list is because I want to have a way to contact you fast, because as you may know, I’m having a baby this month, so I may need to change the times around.

There are also limited amount of spots on the actual calls, so this is a way for you to reserve your spot.

Sign-up to the list below, where you will be updated of the details and get a reminder when the calls begin.

When you’ve signed up, you’ll get a confirmation email to your inbox. Open it, confirm, and you’re in.

7 Reasons Why a Lifestyle Business is Better

Henri — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:56:33 +0000

I can live anywhere because of my business, although I choose to live in the Alaska of Europe right now, which is weird.

I haven’t figured this one out yet.

But I think it has something to do with me becoming a father next month, and being close to family is always nice.

Ever since I was 18, I’ve always had my goals set on being able to do anything, from anywhere, and at any time.

I began playing poker right out of school at 18. I could take my work anywhere, as long as I had an internet connection and a computer.

The same is true with the online business I’ve built. It took a lot of up-front work, making mistakes, and screaming in frustration, but I’m making a living, and I’m learning more each day.

So it is possible.

What is a Lifestyle Business?

Before we go into the 7 reasons, let’s have a quick refresher on what a lifestyle business is, shall we?

My definition of a lifestyle business is an online business (in my case) built around my passion, which allows me to do what I want, where I want, and when I want.

It adds freedom and control to my life, while I’m doing work I love.

A lifestyle business is not for everyone, but if you’re like me and can’t get enough of learning, exploring, and doing new things, then it’s perfect, because it gives you the freedom to do that.

There are plenty of reasons to start a lifestyle business, here are a few:

1. No Alarm Clock

Let’s start with the most important reason first: you get to kill your alarm clock.

I’ve never been good at waking up in the morning, and I don’t intend to get good at it anytime soon.

I want to sleep as long as I want. Sometimes that means waking up at 7AM, and sometimes it means blissfully snoozing until noon.

I’ve had enough of bad alarm clock experiences from my time in school, which I didn’t enjoy, so I don’t intend to have more of them.

2. Passion

The internet has made it easier than ever before to turn your passions into a profitable and ethical business.

You can start a regular business around your passion, but it often won’t give you as much freedom in your life to pursue all the other interests you have.

You no longer have to get a bank loan, rent space, or buy equipment. You can make a living serving others in a way that makes you happy and fulfilled.

I’m not saying it’s easy, because it’s not. You can’t always get paid to do exactly what you love.

You have to find the sweet spot between what people are willing to pay for, what you want to do, and what you’re good at (or want to become good at).

3. Live Life on Your Terms

A lifestyle business supports you in living life on your terms.

If that means traveling the world, one country at a time, then that’s what it’s there for.

If it means having more time for your family and friends, it can do that, too.

If it simply means reading books and exploring what life has to offer, I’m pretty sure that’s possible as well.

You do not need a lot to do what truly makes your heart sing. And yes, this is possible even if you have a family.

Others have done it. You can, too. Skip the excuses.

4. Time

I won’t tie up my time each and every day doing something I don’t enjoy.

Some days I put in long days while working on my online business, and some days I take time off to read, hang out, and just be.

I have control over my time, and that’s one of my favorite things of having a lifestyle business.

I want to be able to become obsessed with something and dive into it for a week or three months like when I studied Spanish in Spain.

5. Relationships

While running an online business as a solopreneur can get lonely, it also gives you more time to be with your friends, family, and pets.

I’m not the best at scheduling my time, and I’m okay with that, because it’s not a problem (that I’m aware of anyway ).

When I get inspired, I work, and when I’m not, I take time off. Sometimes I have to get something done when I’m not inspired, but that’s a part of business.

You can’t get everything on a silver platter.

6. Personal Growth

For me, running a business has been one of the biggest growth experiences of my life.

It constantly pushes me into uncomfortable and new territory. It forces me to grow as a human being.

This isn’t just about the money for me. It’s about creating the life I want to live, both on the inside and on the outside.

I want to have time to focus on the personal development side of life, not just making money and bathing in material abundance.

7. Core

What this really boils down to is freedom and inner peace.

We don’t build businesses to build businesses, we do it because it gives us something else, and for me that something else is the freedom to live my life my way.

It’s what allowed me to spend 11 months in Spain in 2010, and it’s what will allow me to spend a lot of time with my newborn baby.

We all have different goals, and a lifestyle business is not for everyone, but if you resonate with what I’ve said in this article, then it might be for you.

Lifestyle Business Development

It’s easy to get stuck, make mistakes, and lose hope. But it can be done, if you are willing. Sure, I’ve spent half a decade falling on my face, but here I am.

My passion is to help people turn their passions into a real business and lifestyle, which is why I’ve started a monthly coaching program for those that are struggling to make it work.

If you’re interested, check it out, because spots are limited. (I like free time, remember?).

There’s no need to do something you despise, or do work you hate anymore. The solution is always at your fingertips, even if it doesn’t seem like it is.

Do You Make These 5 Mistakes When Trying to Get Paid to Do Work You Love?

Henri — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 16:38:06 +0000

What does it take to get paid to do what you love, to follow your passion?

Most people don’t get it.

I know, because I was one of those people.

Not everyone is cut out to leave the 9-to-5 environment, and that’s okay, as long as they’re happy.

But if you’re frustrated, lost, and confused about how to get paid to do what you love, then read on.

It’s no longer enough to throw a blog up and wait for fame and fortune (was it ever?).

You have to be specific, strategic, and willing to take action even when things look grim.

I’ve spent half a decade doing this, and only in the last few years have things started making sense.

With that said, do you make any of the common mistakes below?

1. Excuses, Excuses, Excuses

How many people do you see waiting for something big to happen so they can finally start living?

“If only I could find my passion, win the lottery, get rid of my fear, or , I’d be on my way,” they say.

We all have excuses. I do, too.

The difference is that some people take action despite them, and some … don’t.

In which camp are you?

In which camp do you want to be?

What we forget is that excuses are ideas in our heads. They are figments of your imagination, catastrophic “what if” scenarios and worries of a future that exists only in your head.

2. Valueless Contribution

You can’t get paid to talk about your cat, but you can get paid to solve problems cat owners have.

“Hold on, but that’s not what I want to do. I just want to do what I love and have no responsibilities whatsoever,” you may hear some say.

And yes, that’s all fine and good, but you probably won’t make a living doing that.

If you want someone to pay you, you have to solve a problem, or make their life better in some way.

You have to find that sweet spot between what you want to do and what others are willing to pay for.

Sometimes that means doing work you aren’t 100% passionate about, but then again, you have to start somewhere.

3. Miracles

Are you waiting for someone to “save” you?

You can start your journey today toward getting paid to do what you love.

If you want to write, then write. You can get a freelance gig within 24 hours.

If you want to build an online business teaching others how to improve their lives, you can take the first step today.

Whatever you want to do, you can get started now, and if you don’t know how, you can find someone who does.

When you have the proper mindset, you come up with solutions, not excuses.

4. Mindset

Mindset is often thrown to the wayside, but that’s a big no-no.

Internal resistance is one of the biggest reasons why people give up. It’s the lizard brain in action.

When I built my first successful website in 2009, after 2-3 years of failing, the thing that changed was my mindset.

You don’t need the perfect system, tool, or program. You need to develop the proper attitude, because like Zig Ziglar said, “Your attitude determines your altitude.”

I tend to agree with that.

You may not become an overnight success, but you cannot fail unless you quit.

5. Action

Last, but definitely not least, you have to be willing to move forward even when it’s uncomfortable.

Building your own business is one of the fastest paths to personal growth.

You constantly have to push your boundaries, and you know when you’re slacking off, because the bills aren’t getting paid.

If you want comfort and stability (assuming it exists), you won’t have a lot of freedom, flexibility, and fun.

There Is A Better Way

Many years ago, I was working a summer job, and I thought, “there has to be a better way.”

And there is, but it requires courage.

If you want to get paid to do work you love, you have to be willing to be uncomfortable, uncertain, and scared.

You have to find a strong reason why, because that is what will get you through the rough patches.

And you have to be willing to start before you’re ready.

How to Discover Your Passion When You Don’t Know Where to Start

Henri — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:26:46 +0000

Do you struggle with any of the problems below?

You don’t know what your passion is
You don’t know how to get paid to follow your passion
You want to do everything
You’re scared out of your mind
You don’t want to wake up 12 months from now and realize you’ve wasted all that time
You think you have too many responsibilities to follow your passion

If so, you’ll want to listen to this interview with Scott Dinsmore.

There are a lot of people out there who want to make a difference, but don’t know where to start.

Most people aren’t even sure they have a passion, much less if they can make a living off it.

This is what Scott and I spend around 28 minutes talking about. It is possible for you to discover your passion and get paid to do what you love.

Here are just a few things you’ll learn:

How to find your passion when you have no idea what it is
Why you might already know what your passion is
The art of experimentation
The dreaded intimidation factor (and how to deal with it)
What to do when you want to do EVERYTHING
Why the biggest risk is doing nothing
The power of heroes
How to know when you’re on the right path (it has to do with butterflies)

Listen

Right-Click Here to Download the MP3

How to Live Off Your Passion

Scott recently launched his course, How to Live Off Your Passion, which we spend some time talking about at the end of the interview.

I’ve gone through the course myself, and I very rarely recommend any course or program, but I really liked Scott’s course, because he gets you to take action through exercises and practical tips, which is key if you want to get results.

If it’s something that resonates with you, then go ahead and get it, but make sure you go through the exercises and take action, because without implementation, nothing really matters.

Have a great day!
-Henri

Stuck? 25 Questions That Will Help You Find and Follow Your Passion

Henri — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:20:22 +0000

Finding and following your passion takes hard work, and it isn’t for the faint-hearted.

You need courage to go for it, despite all the fear, overwhelm, and uncertainty.

While this path may not be the easiest, or the most comfortable, I do it because it is the only path that I can see myself taking. It makes me happy, fulfilled, and satisfied.

In this article, I’ve compiled some of the questions I ask coaching clients, friends, and anyone who needs help finding and following their passion.

It’s like a mini-coaching session. You can use these questions for anything, so they aren’t just for finding and following your passion.

Before you read on, grab a pen and a blank sheet of paper and write down the answers to each question, because it will help you eliminate some of the overwhelm, uncertainty, and fear.

And always remember, you don’t have to find your passion in order to start taking action. Many people make it into another excuse.

Your passion will find you when it does. In the meanwhile, take action. Refuse to wait.

1. What do you REALLY want?

A basic question, but extremely relevant.

I’m not talking about the shoulds or shouldn’ts. Forget about what society, your parents, or your friends say.

What is it that makes you come alive? What truly lights the fire within your soul?

2. What would you want if you didn’t have to be unhappy about not getting it?

I first heard this question from Michael Neill, a world-class coach. At first, it boggled my mind, but as I let it sink in, I realized the power of this simple question.

Take your time with this one, and write down your answer. It boils down to what would make you happy right now, even if you didn’t have to reach some future goal.

3. What’s stopping you?

What is preventing you from finding or following your passion, or going after your dreams?

What have you perceived to be standing in your way up until now?

This is a crucial question, because it sets the tone for the rest of the questions. If you don’t know what is stopping you, then how do you know that there is actually something there?

Even if you know what it is, it’s often not there anyway

4. What specifically is it about that that stops you?

Take your answer from #3, and drill down. If you’re afraid, ask yourself what specifically you’re afraid of.

I was afraid when I started Wake Up Cloud in late 2009 (my first post). More specifically, I was afraid of people not liking what I put out there, and not getting validation for my work.

5. How is that stopping you now?

Take your answer from #3. Let’s stick with fear, in this case you’d ask yourself how that is stopping you from moving forward.

In my case, fear made me confused, overwhelmed, and uncertain. It paralyzed me and I painted disaster scenarios in my head that stopped me from taking action.

6. How could you solve those problems?

When you drill down into what’s stopping you, it goes from a thing to a process. Fear might become the pictures in your head, or sensations in your body.

You can brainstorm solutions to your problems, change the way you represent your fear, or eliminate the sensations. These latter things are what I do with my coaching clients.

7. How does X mean that you can’t do Y?

Let’s, again, stick with fear. How does fear mean that you can’t find or follow your passion?

If it’s just you scaring the shit out of yourself, why can’t you move forward anyway? If you’re afraid of what people will think, shouldn’t you be more afraid of what you think, since it’s you scaring yourself?

All of these things are going on inside of you, not outside, and you can still move forward despite being scared.

8. If all your problems were solved, what would you do?

If all of my problems were solved right now, I’d be more bold, take more action, and take things to the next level.

Funnily enough, this is exactly what I’m doing, so keep your eyes peeled.

But sticking with the question, if you had no problems, worries, or fears, what would YOU do?

9. What are your interests?

What do you enjoy doing? When I got started, it was obvious to me. I loved personal development and online business.

These two topics were my life, and still are. I read, listen, and soak up everything I can, but before I got started, I didn’t believe in myself.

I finally realized that I didn’t have to believe in myself to get started, and I took action, which is why you’re reading these very words.

10. What were your interests?

Some people have suppressed their interests, because they’ve been told it’s impossible to do what you love, or they’ve told themselves that.

If you’re one of those people, look into the past. What did you used to enjoy doing? What brought passion, purpose, and fulfillment into your life?

11. How do you know that you don’t know?

Many of my clients tell me that they don’t know what they want, and I ask them, “How do you know that?”

This has them confused, because it’s something they haven’t considered. It opens up doorways in their mind.

A common answer might be: “I feel it.”

To that I might respond, “So you feel it, and have your feelings ever been wrong?”

That’s just the start. I encourage you to play with this, because what you believe to be true isn’t true, it’s just what you believe.

12. How do you stop yourself?

If you don’t know what your passion is, ask yourself how you stop yourself from finding your passion, or how you stop yourself from taking action anyway.

What do you do to make it not happen? And what would you have to do to discover your passion?

This works with following your passion as well. How are you stopping yourself from making progress, and how can you flip that around?

13. If you had to teach me how to do your problem, how would I do it?

This is a fun one. If you had to teach me how to not find my passion, or follow my passion, or whatever is stopping you, how would you do it?

Write down the process. When you bring the whole process to awareness, you’ll see that there are steps to it, and it makes it seem ridiculous.

It also helps you stop it in its tracks the next time it rears its ugly head.

14. Always?

Most people tell me that they’ve never known what their passion was, but when they tell me that, I know that they are always lying, because we’ve all had glimpses of what it’s like to truly enjoy life.

Your passion doesn’t have to be one thing, it could just mean being in the flow and enjoying the present moment.

Keep it simple!

15. How will you know?

How will you know that you’ve found your passion and that you’re on your way to realizing your dreams?

What internal or external signs will tell you this? This is a great question to give you clarity on how you’ll know when you’ve reached your end goal, or even that you’re on the right track.

16. If there was a miracle tonight… how would you know?

This is an extension of question #15. What would have to change in your life for you to experience a miracle?

If you’re having trouble finding your passion, what would have to change in order for you to discover your passion?

17. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

If Superman gave you a magic potion that gave you immunity from failure, what would you do?

Would you write a book, start a blog, begin public speaking, or go out and hug people?

18. What will you do when you’ve found your passion?

This is a great way to go deeper. What will you do when you’ve found your passion? Or what will you do when you’ve realized your dream life.

Is there something you’re putting off? Many people disguise goals, or finding their passion, as something they need before they can do what they truly want.

In essence, they’re lying to themselves. Are you doing the same?

19. If you pretended to know?

If you pretended that you knew what your passion was, what would it be?

If you pretended to have clarity, what would your next step be?

This is a great question that suspends disbelief and allows you to daydream about the possibilities.

20. What would happen if you didn’t?

What would happen if you didn’t have to find your passion in order to enjoy your life?

This isn’t about having something. You already have everything you need to be happy, joyful, and satisfied.

What would happen if you gave up the search for passion and just went out and had fun?

21. What makes you come alive?

What’s something that makes you come alive?

For me, it’s helping people overcome their perceived limitations, so they can find and follow their passion, and get paid to do what they love.

This is a good question to freewrite on. Put the question at the top of a blank page, and dump everything on your mind on paper for 20-30 minutes, and see what comes out.

22. What’s important to you about living your passion?

This is a question that drills down into what you truly want. I want you to ask this question over and over again until you reach a state that is beyond words.

A client of mine that I did this with had the following kind of progression when I asked this question: Helping People >> Passive Income >> Realizing a Dream >> Being Recognized >> Feeling Complete and Feeling Happy.

In the end, what he really wanted was to feel complete and happy. He discovered that he was already feeling complete and happy, so he already had what he wanted. This is the perfect place to take action from.

23. What will happen if you don’t take action?

What will your life look like if you don’t find or follow your passion 5, 10, 20 years from now?

Will you be happy? Will you regret that you didn’t take action, or will you be okay?

Most people will regret it. I know I would, which is why I take action now, despite my fears.

24. What will happen if you take action today?

What would your life look like if you took action today? What would it look like in 5, 10, 20 years from now?

Would you be fulfilled, satisfied, and happy?

Also, remember that this isn’t about being happy in the future and neglecting the present moment. This is about working towards something you love, while enjoying the here and now.

25. What steps can you take?

The last question is what steps can you take right now?

If you’re not sure what your passion is, what steps can you take right now to get closer to discovering what it is?

If you already know what your passion is, what steps can you take to move forward?

To live a passionate life, you have to take action.

Conclusion

Let’s wrap things up. This is a heavy article, because if you’ve gone through and written down the answers, you’ll have discovered things about yourself that you didn’t know about.

If, on the other hand, you read through the article, and didn’t write anything down, I suggest you go back, and do so.

If you still won’t do it, then you’re making the choice to stay where you are, and as long as you’re okay with that, that’s cool with me.

If you’re waiting for something magical to happen, please don’t, because in the end, you’re the only one that can create the life of your dreams.

When You Feel Like Giving Up

Henri — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:41:59 +0000

Note: If you’re interested in getting your first blog off the ground, check out the Beginner’s Guide to Blogging while there are early-bird copies left. You can also get a sample here.

I’m not good enough.

I don’t know what to do.

Everything feels overwhelming, and I’m ready to give up.

That’s what I’ve been feeling these last few days, and I know you can relate, because every human being on this planet goes through these periods of agony.

It doesn’t matter how successful you are. Success doesn’t give you immunity from humanity.

During periods like these, I want to catapult myself into bed and hide under my sheets. And it doesn’t help that the sheets smell nice and are fluffy.

One of the problems today is that people aren’t honest enough. They have no problem telling you how much money they’ve made, but when it comes to feeling like a failure, they keep their lips tight and their fingers in their pockets.

It makes it all seem like you shouldn’t feel the way you do. But the truth is that whatever you’re going through is normal.

I’ve come a long way since I started actively going after what I wanted at the age of 16, but I still have days where I wish things were easier—a lot easier.

Why Does This Happen?

I wish I knew why these periods of agony occur, but I don’t.

All I know is that they do. They almost seem like periods of cleansing, because when they are over, I feel clearer and more inspired.

It’s only when I try to fight what’s here that days can expand into weeks, but I rarely do that anymore, so I’m often through the woods in a few days.

We don’t need to know why. We just need to know how to deal with it effectively, so it doesn’t ruin our lives.

Many fellow passion seekers have thrown in the towel because they’ve misinterpreted their thoughts and feelings.

Your Thoughts, or Just Thoughts?

When I’m in the midst of the despair, I’ve learned to notice how chaotic my thoughts are.

The more I identify with my thoughts, the more I suffer.

What I’ve experienced more and more is that we are not our thoughts.

Sure, thoughts and feelings happen, but we do not have to get caught up in them.

You can check this out for yourself. Notice the thoughts that are here right now, and also notice that you are the presence which is aware of the thoughts, you are not the thoughts themselves.

Thoughts could not exist without you.

Thoughts have no power unless you focus on them. I’m not saying that you should ignore your thoughts, just that you can be more aware of what you pay attention to, and that you don’t have to get sucked up in the drama.

Just having an intellectual understanding of this won’t help you, because those are just more thoughts. What will help is when you experience it for yourself. The easiest way to do that is to be intensely present and intimate with the present moment.

Yes, even when you feel horrible, especially when you feel horrible.

This topic has been fascinating me to no end lately, so I could go on, but I’ll leave it clean and simple for now.

The Solution to the Despair

In the past, I’ve dealt with these kind of days by trying to push through them. I’ve tried forcing my way to success, whether I liked it or not.

I never even considered that I could take a break.

When I feel like giving up, I’m not productive, and I don’t make good decisions. Whatever I do just breeds more of the same.

What you do during these breaks is up to you, as long as it’s something you enjoy. I watched movies, meditated, read, and listened to some Sedona Method audio programs.

I’ve been exploring the Sedona Method a lot lately, and so far I really like it. I love diving into the world of personal development and discovering what works.

In essence, my solution is simple: I take a break, and let myself experience whatever is going on inside.

I surrender to my thoughts and feelings. Instead of trying to resist and fight them, I welcome them, and let them be as they are.

I’ve noticed that the way I feel becomes a problem when I want to change it, because that’s where the fight begins.

The way most people deal with negative feelings is by running away to food, sex, TV, drugs, alcohol, video games, or whatever your favorite thing happens to be.

I am no different, but I’m getting better at staying here and now (as if I could ever leave the now).

Life happens the way it happens. I went through a rough few days, but I’m feeling inspired and ready to take action now.

I know that these kind of days happen from time to time, so I don’t try to avoid them. Instead, I embrace them with open arms and do my best to be with them.

The ride is much smoother that way, and often what I’ve labeled as negative emotions bring lessons and gifts with them.

All I have to do is be open to them.

Not always easy, but always worth it.

Steal My Book – Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

Henri — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 08:59:16 +0000

During the past month I’ve been working on my next book, Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

It’s designed to show you how to start your first blog, as you may already have figured out.

It’s straight to the point, and it only covers what you need to know to start your blog and get off to a great start.

The reason I decided to take this [simple] path was to eliminate the confusion and overwhelm that people usually run into when starting out.

Further down in this article, you can grab a sample of the book, so you can check it out before you buy.

If you want to buy a copy right away, you can click here to learn more.

Why I Created Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

I asked my readers what they were having trouble with, and the main thing was blogging.

They want to get started, but they don’t know how. Sure, there’s a lot of information out there, but it’s often conflicting and it leaves you confused and frustrated.

I know it did for me when I was starting out.

As I surveyed my readers more, I discovered the individual obstacles, and those obstacles formed the chapters for the Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

Why You Should Buy Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

If you’ve been wanting to start a blog, but haven’t known how, when, where, or why, then you might want to take a look at this book.

Obviously, there are many reasons why you should get this book, and I’m not going to try and convince you, because that is up to you.

If you feel even the slightest bit interested in what this book has to offer, I recommend you keep reading.

Tell Me the Details

The book is available for $7.95 for 100 early-bird copies, after that it goes up to $9.95.

Something new I’ve done with this book is that I’ve added a 28-minute interview with Benny Lewis from Fluent in 3 Months.

In summary, you get a 104 page book with no fluff and no filler, and you get to hear me chat with Benny about how he makes a living through his blog.

Where’s the Sample?

If you want to take a quick peek at what’s inside the book before you buy, below is a sample with a few chapters from the book.

If you’re reading this in a feedreader and can’t see the sample, click through to the post.

Enjoy!

To download the sample, right-click this link and choose save-as.

How to Buy the Book

The book is available right now, and for the first 100 copies, you can get it at 20% off, so grab your copy right away if you’re planning on buying it anyway.

That’s all for now. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch or simply leave a comment below.

How I Wrote Beginner’s Guide to Blogging

Henri — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 16:57:55 +0000

For the past month, I’ve been working on my next book, Beginners Guide to Blogging, which will be out this ~~Thursday, October 13^th~~is now availble. As usual, I’ll have a certain amount of early-bird copies available.

The truth of the matter is that creating paid products is scary. In this article, I’ll reveal the process I went through in creating Beginners Guide to Blogging, so you can see first-hand what goes on when I create an ebook.

Although I say it’s scary, it’s a very simple process when you break it down into manageable steps. The mistake most people make is they make it more complex than it has to be.

It’s always one step at a time, whether you’re freaking out or not.

Uncovering the Initial Idea

Since being in this space for the last few years, I’ve noticed where people tend to get stuck when it comes to earning a living doing something they enjoy.

Most new product creators and digital authors believe that they have to be the best in their field before they can teach anyone anything.

The truth is that you only have to be one step ahead of your customers. If you’ve just started a blog, you can show someone how to do it.

I fell into this trap, but after listening and getting feedback from my readers, I discovered the most pressing topic—blogging.

That’s where my journey began.

Cultivating the Idea

When I knew that I wanted to write Beginner’s Guide to Blogging, I asked what my readers were struggling with when it came to starting a blog.

Often the easiest way to discover what products you can create is to ask your readers what they have trouble with, and then find the intersection between that and what you know.

That’s what I did with Passionate Living, and that’s what I’ve done with Beginner’s Guide to Blogging.

I have a feeling that’s why Passionate Living is my most popular product—it solves problems and makes your life flow just a touch easier.

Action

Once I had taken notes on the survey results, it was time to take action.

I began brainstorming. I started with a title for the book, then the chapters, and then the sub-chapters.

My goal for the book was simplicity. I wanted to eliminate overwhelm and help you start your first blog with a minimal amount of confusion.

This was the scariest part of the creation process, because I was sitting at my computer staring at a blank page.

Re-Organizing

My goal was to write 2,000 words or more every day. I did this to disengage the editor, the chattering mind.

I knew from experience that the first part was getting everything down on paper. The editing and rewriting came later.

I re-organized chapters, sections, and ideas several times during the creation process. I was okay with that, because I knew that’s how these things go.

It was not through planning that my book grew into a finished product, but through taking action and tweaking as I went along.

Feedback

Once the book was in okay shape, I sent it out to my Early Access List test group.

The book wasn’t done, but I wanted feedback. I was surprised when several of my testers started their first blogs without any trouble whatsoever.

It showed me that the book was already doing a great job. Now all it needed was polishing.

I went through it one final time, making it flow and read better, and I was done.

The Beginner’s Guide to Blogging is now available if you’re interested in grabbing a copy. If you want, you can read the sample before you buy.

See you then!

The Secrets of Self-Publishing in the Digital Age

Henri — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:50:47 +0000

This is an interview with Sean Platt, copywriter turned fiction writer.

There has been a lot of talk about the Kindle and self-publishing lately, so I decided to have a chat with Sean and clear up the confusion.

This interview is around 45 minutes of Sean and I going through the do’s and dont’s of self-publishing in a very relaxed manner.

If you aren’t into self-publishing, I highly recommend you listen to this interview anyway, because you will learn what it takes, and how Sean made the transition with a wife and two kids.

If you don’t have time to listen to this interview here on the blog, you can download the MP3 or the transcript below.

I have personally been looking into and learning about publishing for the Kindle, and I have to say it’s interesting. However, I’m in no rush, and right now I’m observing and doing what I like to do, which is publish my ebooks and courses right here.

Also, my mind completely blanked at the end where I forgot a very common English word, so if you want to have a laugh, listen to that .

Here are just a few of the things we cover:

What is self-publishing?
Why now is the best time to self-publish
The difference between vanity publishing and self-publishing
How to price your books for the Kindle on Amazon
How losing everything for Sean turned out to be a positive thing
How to allow fear to catapult you into success
Why making mistakes is essential to realizing your dreams
Can you use PLR or put in affiliate links in Kindle books?
The #1 mistake that hold most people back from taking action
What to do if you’re not a killer writer
What to expect when you start self-publishing
How to market your book to success
A devious tactic for publishing books without writing full-length books

Download

Right click here to download the MP3

Right click here to download the transcript (PDF)

Links mentioned in this interview:

Sean’s Books:

The Trailer for Sean’s Book:

Sean mentioned the trailer for his fiction series, Yesterday’s Gone, so I thought I’d embed it here for you to check out.

It’s short, sweet, and gets you interested.

That’s all for this post. If you have any questions for me or Sean, please leave them in the comments below, and we’ll answer them ASAP.

Enjoy!

Are You Unknowingly Trying to Force Success (And Burning Out in the Process)?

Henri — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:19:25 +0000

Have you been trying really hard to succeed in finding and following your passion—in making your dreams a reality?

How’s that working for you?

Are you tired, frustrated, and ready to give up?

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be a struggle. The bad news is that you might do it anyway, because you believe it is the only way.

Progress will happen at whatever speed it happens. When you try to push, you struggle, you suffer, and it slows everything down.

When you allow things to take their time, you get into the flow, and you enjoy the present moment.

There is no rush.

There is no hurry.

So you might as well enjoy what’s here and now.

Why We Try to Force Success

Everyone around us puts a high value on achievement and success.

We learn from an early age that we have to do, and the more we do, the better things get, or at least so we’re told, but have you taken a look around lately?

It’s all about doing.

And it isn’t making anyone happy.

It isn’t through force that you will succeed and enjoy life, but in allowing life to unfold in the way it does, while staying present.

This doesn’t mean that you become passive a observer, it just means that you stop resisting, forcing, and struggling.

You stop suffering.

It’s the equivalent of surfing on a wave and trying to stop it from hitting the shore.

One makes sense, while the other is utter lunacy.

A Short Story

Now, don’t get me wrong. I struggle, but not as much as I used to.

When I began, I wanted so badly to succeed online. As I kept going, I discovered that relaxing and following my heart was what truly brought me joy.

When you get into the flow, things happen without effort. You’ll fall into fear just like before, but that’s okay. It’s a part of the game.

When you stop forcing, life’s good.

This means allowing life to unfold and being curious as to what comes next.

How to Stop the Madness

The best way to stop the struggle is to develop trust in yourself.

And you do that one step at a time.

This could mean trusting your intuition, instincts, or unconscious. It doesn’t matter what label you put on it, because to me they all lead to the same place.

Most things never go as planned, because they just happen. People try to resist this fact, because they want certainty, but that’s just because they haven’t yet realized that certainty is not what they want.

The sooner you can let go of certainty and just allow life to unfold, the more you will enjoy life.

It is not something in the future that will bring you happiness, but this very moment. Take a deep breath, and notice the power that is already inside you.

It is always there, and will always be there, because it is you.

You are that which is aware of the struggle, the fears, and the thoughts in your mind.

You can do anything.

You can be(come) anyone.

But it all starts here and now.

The Best Way to Find Your Writing Voice? Stop Looking

Henri — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:03:17 +0000

Are you afraid that your writing isn’t unique enough?

Or perhaps worried that you won’t have anything meaningful to say?

Discover your writing voice is a big obstacle for a lot of people.

I’m both sad and excited about this, because the solution is simple, but not easy to act on.

The fact that you’re afraid of sharing your message with the world just means that you truly care what you put out there, and that caring is what will make a big difference in your writing.

When I started, I was paralyzed by the thought of sharing my internal world with the outside world, and still am from time to time, but I write anyway, and I’m still alive.

Every writer cares about what others think, which means you will be afraid, stuck, and miserable from time to time.

It’s a part of doing what you love. When you realize that, you also discover that it’s not about eliminating the fear, it’s about dancing with it.

What is Your Writing Voice?

Your writing voice is not something that’s fixed and something great writers keep in their back pocket. Your voice is constantly evolving, growing, and wanting to express itself.

All you can do right now is to express the voice you have. Do not wait for a-ha moments and big discoveries, because they may never come.

Your voice is like an unpolished diamond. The potential is always there, but it takes hard work to uncover what’s inside.

Nothing will happen unless you act. There is no magic incantation you can use to bring forth the brilliance within you, except the magic of hard work.

Your voice doesn’t have to be perfect, you just have to be willing to express it.

Why You’re Wrong About Your “Writing Voice”

If you’re like most people, then you see your writing voice as something mysterious, out of your reach, and something you need to discover.

But just like in real life, you don’t have to discover your speaking voice, because you already have one.

You are who you are, and you write the way you write.

As you keep writing, eliminating blocks, and moving forward, your writing will evolve.

And believe it or not, so will your “writing voice.”

I cannot guarantee that people will listen to you, but so what?

If at first no one reads your writing, you keep writing and improving.

If at first no one finds you unique enough, you keep writing, and you uncover your uniqueness.

You have to be willing to fail until you can succeed.

The Solution to Your “Writing Voice” Problem

You may think that you have to discover your voice before you can blog, write, or whatever you want to do, but it doesn’t work like that.

Most people have it backwards.

Your voice isn’t found, it’s honed.

You already have a writing voice, just like you have a speaking voice.

To become a great writer, you have to practice diligently.

When you say you cannot start because you haven’t found your voice, you’re making an excuse.

And do you realize that the only way to really get the writing voice you want is to do exactly what you fear—to write and put yourself out there?

That’s the beauty of it all.

Image by Daniel

Wake Up Cloud

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