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Attitude Adjustment

SDN019: How I made $400,000 from a single conversation

One of the best things you can be in life and in business is more outgoing and more approachable when it comes to making new friends. I thought I'd use this time between us to talk about my history- how I'm more outgoing, more boisterous; how I make great connections, how I shake more hands, and how it's benefited me in my life and in my business.

As far as I know, as a kid, I was always very outgoing. I never knew a stranger. Everybody was a friend. I don't ever recall having a fear of speaking to strangers, but I know that a lot of people do. They are afraid of approaching people, talking to people, and making friends out of strangers.

How did I get here?

I thought about my history and what it took for me to get over that. At one point in time, I realized I was more outgoing than others. Even though it was never a fear of mine, I can still think of a couple of different milestones, or experiences I've had that helped me become as approachable as I am.

Like I said, as a kid, I was already very outgoing and very approachable. I didn't see an enemy in every room. I would come up and talk to everybody probably to the point where it scared my mom because most parents like their kids to be afraid of strangers and I was never, ever afraid of a stranger.

In high school I joined the marching band where we did several public performances. It was part of the job to be boisterous and outgoing in order to attract the attention of the judges and others in the world of competition. I'm not sure if that ever really helped, but I’m sure it contributed to the evolvement of my personality.

Once I joined the military, a friend and I picked up a side job as disc jockeys. This meant we had to be on a microphone, talking to a large group of people, on a regular basis. Most of them sober, but a good chunk of them were also intoxicated. We always had to be entertaining. We always had to introduce events. We always had to basically make people enjoy their time with us, in between playing music. Everyone would come out to see us, to have a drink, and to get away from the stress of life. It was very important that we talked on a regular basis. I really got comfortable with speaking in public and realized that I wasn't so much concerned about making mistakes as I was making sure people had a great time.

Later in life, as I embarked on a technology career, I realized I really enjoyed teaching and speaking in public. I would get involved in teaching classes at the different companies that I worked at. Most people would shy away from teaching classes, especially technology classes because you have a very rough crowd, but not me. I would always look forward to them, even jump at the opportunity. I would rather be standing up in front of a classroom, teaching what I know. And because technology can usually be a pretty boring topic, I’d teach in a way that was entertaining and fun.

Eventually, as I left my formal job and embarked on my own career in 1998, being able to speak to a group of people, whether it was 2 or 200 people, became essential in business. I was travelling all over the world, to different countries, speaking about technology and training people on the technology for the company that I was working for. I actually ended up as a consultant and as one of the better trainers because I was able to communicate ideas very well. On many occasions, people said that they really understood and liked the way that I taught the subject.

The $400,000 conversation ...

There is even one particular time I can remember standing in a airport line in Oklahoma City where being more outgoing and approachable landed me several hundred thousand dollars in business with the US government. This was post 9/11 and the lines were long and slow. I struck up a long conversation with a department manager for the Veterans' Affairs. As we made our way through the airport line we talked about many topics, some of them work-related. Once we were on the other side of the metal detectors, we exchanged cards and parted ways. About a month later she called me asking if I could come in and do some IT analysis for her. That single conversation started a multi-year government contract that ended up in $400,000 of additional revenue. I've had many other scenarios like this where being a little outgoing was very beneficial for my business.

I thought I'd review some reasons why I think people aren't as outgoing as I am. These aren't really faults or problems; these are just my observations and why I think people just sometimes have a little bit more fear about being more outgoing.

The first reason is past experiences. One of the first places you have the opportunity to express yourself is ask a kid, in school. And kids are cruel. Let’s say you’re performing on stage- theatrically or musically. All your buddies are in the audience and they're poking fun at you. They're laughing at you. They're throwing stuff at you. They're not really the kind of people that encourage you. They are your peers and you really respect their opinions, and your peers are being cruel to you.

You may have had an experience similar to this or something else that has really dissuaded you from feeling safe enough to put yourself out there, to be more public or vocal with your opinions. Past experiences might also lead to my second point, which is, I think, people have a really high fear of making mistakes.

It's one thing to make a mistake when you're at your desk, by yourself, on a computer and there's nobody around. But making a mistake while in front of a group of people can be mortifying for some. You may have the fear that this group of people is smarter or wiser than you or just understand the topic better. Maybe you voiced your opinion once and somebody beat you down by saying, "You know what? You made a huge mistake there. That's not at all what's going on." Once that happens, it could be harmful psychologically and you may really want to turn back into an introvert and never speaking in public again. That goes along with my next point, which is fearing what people will think of you.

The judgement of your peers brings fear which might be holding you back ...

From the moment you stand on a stage, or in front of a room of people, you are being judged and listened to. People are judging everything from the tone of your voice, your rate of speech, how your hair/makeup/clothes looks, to how you walk, use your hands, or how your slides look. There are 100 different things that people can judge about you once you are in front of a group of people speaking. Criticism of any of these factors could be a huge point of self-consciousness. This could be another reason you may have the fear of being more outgoing.

The last reason may be something as simple as you don't feel you have anything to say. Often times when people approach me about going into a public speaking career, they're like, "I love the idea of public speaking, but I have nothing to say." Then we have to work with them through that and figure out, "What's your business? What's your message? Why do you enjoy public speaking, or why are you afraid of public speaking and how can we get you over that fear when you don't think you have anything to say?"

Those are a few reasons why people come to me and say that they do not want to get involved in the world of being more outgoing, or specifically public speaking. I'm going to run through some benefits that I've had over the years by doing it and then maybe give you a list of things you can do next to get started yourself.

First of all, I can tell you that I've made more friends by being more outgoing, or for lack of a better term, exposing myself more. I wear my heart on my sleeve, put my opinion out there and am just generally more vocal about what I think. By doing this, I have made more friends. I could also tell you definitively that it has generated more business and better business for me whether it's speaking to someone when I'm in a coffee shop line, or speaking at a conference or training event. Being more outgoing and willing to share my opinion in a very verbal fashion has helped my business tremendously.

If you want to run your own business, being outgoing and approachable is not optional ...

If you're someone who is an entrepreneur, or wants to be one, this is going to be a skill that you're going to have to have. One of the last benefits I've realized is that by being more outgoing and willing to speak up in public, you're actually considered more of an expert. People will buy more from an expert than they will from an amateur. It's not what's in our brains or how much experience, or intelligence we have about a particular topic. The expert is the person that stands up and says something about a topic. It's not the person who knows the most- it's the person who says the most and markets the most.

If you're someone, like I said, who's going to be an entrepreneur, or you want to be an entrepreneur and you want to get your opinions heard and you want to be considered an expert, being a public speaker, being more outgoing with your thoughts, feelings, and opinions is going to be crucial.

How do you get started in this world? How do you get started being more outgoing and being more approachable? It takes practice. All good things take practice. You have to practice it on a daily basis.

How do you practice being more outgoing? You talk to strangers more. I don't have any problem talking to strangers, whether it be at the bookstore or the coffee shop, I have no problem approaching someone, finding a common point of interest, and then maybe introducing myself and saying, "Hey, I noticed you're drinking the same kind of coffee I do. What do you think about it? Have you tried this?" Or, when I'm looking at business books, or technology books, I'll see if somebody has a book or they're contemplating a book. I'll find a common point of interest.

One of my best ways to introduce myself to a stranger has always been to find a common point of interest and then leapfrog it from there. Find people in random places, coffee shops, and bookstores are great places. Find a common point of interest and springboard from there. Also, I would encourage you to attend more public events where there are people that want to network. People attend networking events for the specific purpose of meeting new people. Everyone's going there for the same reason you're going there, but often times people that go there are really shy. There's a lot of networking going on. In those particular cases, remember that you're all there for a common purpose whether it's you have a common love of scrapbooking, model cars, or video games- remember that you're all there in the same place for the same purpose. You want to take advantage of that. You know what their common interest is. You don't have to worry about finding one like I was talking about earlier in a coffee shop, or in a bookstore. You already know there's a common interest there.

You use that common interest as a springboard to basically make a new friend and connect with that person off line and that in turn will beget new relationships after that. You're going to have to be more outgoing yourself. You can't wait for people to approach you. When you want to be more outgoing on a particular topic, you are going to have to proactively go out and talk to people. That's how you're going to build relationships. That's how you're going to become better and more comfortable at it.

Frequent public speaking will make you more comfortable ...

I promise you the more public speaking you do, the more networking you do, you will become comfortable with it and you will get better at it. There will always be a little bit of fear, but eventually it won’t be so bad. I don’t think that ever completely goes away. My interest in building my business, my genuine interest in other people's stories and their lives overrides that fear and as a result, I've been able to make some great friends in this world. I've made some great business contacts and my personal growth has blossomed as has my business growth. I hope this has helped you maybe figure out how to be a more outgoing person. I'd love to hear your feedback on some other tips and tricks that you've done, or ways where you've seen your life or business transform by being a more outgoing person.

Thank you for reading.

Attitude Adjustment

How To Balance Long-Term With Urgent – One Task At A Time

Quick, do this exercise.

Think of all the short-term tasks you completed yesterday, like replying to emails, fixing glitches on your web site, answering the phone, updating Facebook status, making lists, and waiting for people to confirm their appointments. All valuable. None pay the bills.

In the course of a day most people spend most minutes putting out fires, tinkering with details, making lists and procrastinating. It’s called the Parkinson Principle - work expands to fill the time allotted.

What about long-term projects. How much time do you invest every day moving those projects ahead?

I’m thinking projects like:
Designing your next product launch
Getting help to build an advertising campaign
Writing that book you’ve been talking about since 2001
Outsourcing your social media (that’s eating up a hour a day)
Using customer feedback to update your product
Getting your accounting up-to-date

Those projects move the needle forward. The trick is to employ a system where long-term goals drive your actions, not hoping you'll find more time (mysteriously) later.

Here are three died-in-the-wool systems that will help you balance long-term objectives with urgent tasks. I have taught these systems to thousands of people and they are always the most popular parts of my time management seminars.

1. Work from a Flight Plan:

Once a week you need to create a Flight Plan - a short list of essential objectives to complete by next Friday. This is not another “To-Do” list full of miscellaneous tasks and “leftovers” from last week -- instead it’s mission-critical work that moves your long-term projects forward and gets you closer to your goals.

Start with “Boulders” (the big goals for the year): what “Chunks” of Boulders can you complete this week? It might be setting up a meeting, research, or outsourcing - the trick is to have something every week that keeps your Boulders rolling forward.

Next, add in one-off, time-sensitive tasks. Be as specific as possible - “Post job in upwork.com for graphic design” is better than “Get help with graphic design”.

Once you have your Flight Plan, keep it visible and drive all your actions toward completing it before the weekend.

2. Remove Distractions:

A distraction could be that sticky note that’s been on your desk for two months, or a full Inbox screaming “look at me!” Minor in the moment, distractions have a way of gnawing away at your focus and making it difficult to complete. Boundaries (creating time slots when you are strategically unavailable) and Blocking (creating appointments with yourself) are two systems to start with. Here are some other fast solutions:

Take 10 minutes and purge your desk of anything not immediately needed (yes, that includes that stack of business cards from the last conference you attended).

Unsubscribe from email lists that you no longer want. Yes, this will take time (you can outsource this) but think of the distractions that will disappear every day.

Get all your lists in one place -- this includes calendars. If you aren’t using that cool app on your phone every day, it’s likely not needed. Delete it.

Create a list for the month and a “someday” list in Evernote. These are un-prioritized holding zones. Do not look at these except once a week when you update your Flight Plan.

3. Practice Triage:

In an emergency, paramedics practice triage. They often can’t attend to everything and everyone immediately, so they make hard decisions about what can wait. You need to do the same.

Jumping from one task to another, without completing what you started is a recipe for anxiety and failure. I am often surprised how much more effective I can be working from a cafe with no Internet connection, as opposed to my office where I am fully connected.

When a distraction comes up (“I’ll just take a minute and check out their web site”), resist. If this does not contribute to your Flight Plan it can wait. Tough love in the moment will pay big love dividends long-term.

Bio:
Hugh Culver co-created the world’s most expensive tours (to the South Pole), started five companies, and teaches experts the business of speaking. Read his blog on the business of speaking.

Follow him on Twitter @hughculver

Performance & Productivity, Personal Development

The Four Best Damn Productivity Habits High Achievers Use

I’m a student of productivity. I have to be -- distractions are everywhere.

And while I know there are hundreds of apps designed to plan, protect, measure, and manage my time, I prefer some died-in-the-wool methods.

The good news is you can use them as well and with zero training.

First, how are you doing? Are you able to focus when needed and complete the task at hand? Are you organized and following a plan? Can you recover from inevitable distractions quickly and get back to work?

If you’re not sure you’re playing at the top of your time management game, then these solutions can make a big difference.

1. BOUNDARIES:

I think “open door” policies are stupid. It’s also stupid to check you email first thing in the morning, work without a plan and allow interruptions to rule your day.

That’s why you need Boundaries.

A Boundary is when you are strategically unavailable. Different from a meeting, a Boundary is a time block that reoccurs every day to allow you to work on projects that require your full attention.

My first Boundary is from 5:00 to 7:00AM for writing. No Internet, spell-check, email, or social media -- just a big cup of tea and writing. I will either be working on a blog (guess what time I’m writing this), client proposal or speech -- most mornings I can crank out 1,000 words.

My next Boundary is 9:15 to 10:30AM. I’m at my office (a 12-minute bike ride from home) and working on 50% of the hardest work on my plate for the day.

And then I have a Boundary from 1:30 to 3:30 for the second 50% of hard work.

Here’s the trick: I don’t worry if it doesn’t happen. It could be I have a client meeting, a speech out of town or I’m meeting someone. Of course, I try to schedule around my Boundaries, but if I can’t protect that time my trick is to return to my routine the next day.

2. BLOCKING:

You get ready and are on time for meetings. Right?

Why not create a meeting for yourself.

Blocking happens when you create an appointment with yourself for a task that either:

You know you might procrastinate about
Impacts someone else and they are relying on you to get it done
Is strategic and by completing it you move other projects ahead

When I get off the phone from a new client, I block time on my calendar to interview delegates (invaluable research as a speaker), create handouts, or have a final call with the client.

I also Block time for responding to RFP’s (Request For Proposals), researching for my blog, creating email sequences for upcoming webinars and just thinking.

I’m always a bit surprised how my Pavlovian reaction to seeing a meeting on my calendar (even if I’m not meeting someone) alerts me to get ready to work on that task.

One last point about Blocking time for yourself: my rule is once the Block is created you can’t delete it, only move it.

3. BATCHING:

When I visit my friend’s cabin each summer, we chop wood. Nothing like chasing a scrap of wood around the chopping block to keep me happy.

It would be a bit silly for me to announce I’m going to “chop some wood”, proudly return with one stick only to head out 20 minutes later to “chop some more wood.” Instead I Batch.

Batching is a lost art in our age of multitasking and it still works like a damn. When you Batch you complete similar tasks all at once. The most obvious example is your email. That addictive Inbox (Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D likens our addiction to email to that of a Vegas slot machine) will suck up every available moment unless you reserve your visits to Batching. Other examples of batching include:

paying bills
filing and clearing the clutter in your office
returning phone calls
updating your planning tools
updating social media
reading and commenting on blogs
dealing with personal finances, money transfers, investments, banks, insurance companies etc.

4. BREAKS:

And now for the one power tool that will have the biggest impact on your success -- taking Breaks. Don’t underestimate the power of a Break.

New research found that over four hours of sitting a day (between your breakfast, commute, email, social media, TV, Netflix and meetings that’s easy to do) doubles your risk of Type 2 diabetes, obesity and early coronary disease. Got your attention?

The trick is to take Breaks throughout the day, not to wait for that long walk in the evening. Researchers found that exercise after the fact (like going for a long run after work) can’t undo “damage” done while we’re dormant in our chair.

So, you have to plan to move at least every 15 minutes. Here’s how:

Move your garbage can, water and recycling box away from your desk,
When working on a project, set a timer for every 25 minute to get up and move,
Park further away from your office, meeting, grocery store and walk the rest of the way,
Take the stairs, and
Use this list of office exercises to inspire some variety in your movement.

Boundaries, Blocking, Batching and Breaks - pretty easy hacks to get you productive and moving.

What are you going to start with?

“When you feel good about what you did, your brain will change. It will want to do the behavior again in the future. That leads to making the habit stronger.”
~ B.J. Fogg, Ph.D

Follow him on Twitter @hughculver

Performance & Productivity, Personal Development

How To Get Unstuck And Started (Even If You Love To Procrastinate)

We’ve all been there. You have. I have. Stuck.

Maybe you need to get your sales up or write a book. Maybe you need to deal with a staffing issue (or you need staff). Whatever the reason…being stuck sucks.

The good news is there are hacks that’ll get you unstuck, moving and productive again.

Before we get to that …

Advice is like water. Everyone needs it, but we don’t give it much credit for making life happen. Ask a person in the middle of a desert if water is “helpful” and you’ll get a different story. Why?

When you recognize the “cost” of being stuck the solution is much, much more valuable. So, before we dive into solutions I know work, think for a minute about the alternative. What is the real cost of being stuck?

If you don’t pick up the phone and call the client back. If you don’t create a deadline and start working on that book. If you don’t create those emails and ask people for the sale.

Procrastination has a cost.

Feel it? Good. Now, let’s move to getting you unstuck.

Ten ways to get unstuck, moving, and productive again.

1. Get real.

Think how many decisions you’ve to make in your life. In a year’s time this will seen minor, so why not just do it?

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Churchill

2. Take a break.

When you focus your attention on a task completely unrelated, your mind can return to the original task refreshed and with a new perspective.

"Never taking a break from thought work actually reduces your ability to be creative" - Kimberly Elsbach, UC-Davis

3. Get physical.

Stand, stretch, go for a run, walk your dog -- physical movement increases the flow in your circulatory system, releases feel-good neurotransmitters (like Dopamine, and Serotonin) and puts you in a positive mood.

“Exercise is like fertilizer for the brain … it’s so good it’s like Miracle Gro.” - Dr. John Ratey, Harvard.

4. Stop doing list.

What is filling your time AND holding you back? Make a list (Jim Collins calls it your ‘Stop Doing list’) -- one of the fastest ways to get started is to stop doing those low-value tasks that are chewing up your time.

“The "stop doing" list became an enduring cornerstone of my annual New Year resolutions.” - Jim Collins, author From Good to Great

5. Change your environment.

Clear the desk clutter, work from a local cafe, use paper instead of computer -- sometimes, a change is as good as a start.

"As a species, humans have evolved to respond to novelty, once we've become accustomed to something, we may grow immune to its effects. - Hugh Thompson, Ph.D

6. Be kind to yourself.

It’s easy to blame yourself -- don’t. You’ve been here before; you are capable and you will succeed. Have faith you will get through this period, just like every other time.

“Practicing self-compassion provides us with the kind voice and warm embrace we need in difficult times so we courageously do the right thing.” – Forbes

7. Let go of the past.

It’s hard to get started when your attention is on what didn’t work in the past. Take a deep breath, let it go and focus on what you want to create in the today, for the future.

“Once we start a task, it is rarely as bad as we think.” - Tim Pychyl, Ph.D

8. Get advice.

Usually we can’t see the forest for the trees when we’re too close to the problem. Ask a good friend, hire a coach - even ask on-line. And then listen.

“When you ask for advice, people do not think less of you; they think you are smarter.” - Maurice Schweitzer, PhD of the Wharton School

9. Create a deadline.

A little tension (like a deadline) can move mountains and end procrastination. Give yourself a Decision Deadline (for the full project or a practical solution) and stick to it.

“Deadlines allow us to clarify our thoughts and create an action plan.” - Dan Ariely, Ph.D

10. Create tiny wins.

Frustrated about sales? Call one prospect. Want to lose weight? Start walking 20 minutes a day. Need to apologize? Write a card. Any forward motion is a tiny win in the right direction.

“When you feel good about what you did, your brain will change. It will want to do the behavior again in the future. That leads to making the habit stronger.” - B.J. Fogg, Ph.D

Ten ways to get moving. All work. Only one question ... what are you doing here (get started).

Bio:
Hugh Culver co-created the world’s most expensive tours (to the South Pole), started five companies, and teaches experts the business of speaking.

Read his blog on the business of speaking.

Follow him on Twitter @hughculver

Generating Wealth

How I Went From $0 To $17K/Month In 12 Months

This article is reprinted in full with permission from the original author Colin. I kept all images and links intact. I originally read this over on Reddit and thought it was a great example of how to build an internet business strictly based on great content and low-cost advertising. Note that this is not a "How To Make Money Fast" post. Colin busted his chops for 12 months to get his "overnight success". Read, learn, take notes and please help us and Colin out by sharing this all-over social media.

~ Patrick

---

What’s up everybody?

My name is Colin, and I am the founder Bullymake.com. My background is in Finance and Economics – although internet marketing is now my passion.

One year ago, I decided to start my company, Bullymake. When I started, I had no clue what I was doing.

That means I had ZERO marketing experience, ZERO web experience, just ZERO experience as an entrepreneur.

But I knew I wanted to build a business, and I wasn’t going to stop just because I didn’t know how to do something.

First, I taught myself how to build a website.

Then I taught myself how to acquire customers on a consistent basis.

I acquired my first customer in September of 2014 and was giddy like a little school girl. Then I learned how to get better and better at it.

And let it be stated that this company was COMPLETELY BOOTSTRAPPED. I didn’t have any money to risk when I started building it. I had no money to invest (at least, not a significant amount at all - like a couple hundred bucks.)

So, let’s jump into what’s worked and how I went from scrub to building a $17K monthly recurring revenue business (and growing quickly month over month)!

1. Picking a huge market and focusing on a specific problem.

Bullymake first started when my wife and I bought a little Bulldog. Originally, it started as a business where I wanted to sell collars, harnesses, and other items for the Bulldog breed.

From there, I pivoted. I then realized he was destroying every toy in site, and that toys would be a good idea!

As I learned more about internet marketing, I realized that continuity (monthly recurring) businesses are really sweet. The lifetime value of a customer can be super high if the customer is happy.

So, I set my focus on a subscription box – and not just for Bulldogs, but for all power chewing breeds!

Problem was that a subscription box business for dogs is not a new concept. In fact, there is competition EVERYWHERE. But this can be a good thing – it means the market is huge.

But by creating a company slightly differently from the rest and focusing on a specific problem, I can tap into a massive market. This is where the inherent value for Bullymake is!

Take what your competition is doing and either A) slightly differentiate yourself or B) do it better… Or both. No need to reinvent the wheel.

2. CONTENT MARKETING

Yes, I put that shit in all caps 'cause it's important.

Content marketing literally built this business and now we’re gonna talk about how to do this from here on out.

The pieces of content you develop are the TOP OF ANY SALES FUNNEL.

This is where I initially found my first trickles of traffic. I wrote blog posts.

I started by writing “evergreen” type posts looking for traffic from the search engines. Noob moves for my niche.

Those posts are boring, unoriginal, and have no chance for virality.

Posts such as: “Why a Harness is Important for Your Dog.” FUCKING YAWN.

I then started writing posts that connected with people and their interest. Such as “21 Things Only a Bulldog Parent Would Understand” that utilized a lot of imagery from Instagram. Boom!

These posts are a hit and get shared like crazy – bringing me lots of traffic.

They get shared over and over by readers, and it exposes my brand to a larger and larger audience.

If you make a quality post and target correctly, a little bit of money on Facebook can go a long way. And I mean a loooooonggg way.

As you can see above, I had only spent ~ $50 to market that post. I got 1,135 clicks from that post at $.044 cents per click. That’s less than 1 cent per click.

Check the other metrics – an 8.46% CTR, and a 10/10 relevance score.

And that doesn’t include the organic traffic from the shares.

This piece of content would be the top of my sales funnel. It’s where people first come to your site and familiarize with your brand.

And once that happens you move on to RETARGETING these people.

3. Custom Audiences & Retargeting

And that brings us here. Custom audiences are the SHIT. They do everything for you.

Whenever you make a blog post, immediately make sure you build a custom audience for any traffic that hits that page.

A custom audience is simply an audience of people that have visited a specific page on your site, or any page on your site.

Facebook puts these people into this audience for you to retarget later. We have hundreds and hundreds of custom audiences.

This is a very basic step for building an effective Facebook sales funnel.

Then write another blog post which targets the traffic that’s already been to your site! Guess what the results are?

That’s right. Lots of organic reach which means tons of shares, traffic, and leads. It’s because they already know you and your brand. Now you’re starting to build authority and trust with these people.

And for those individuals who have already reached one of the product pages, they get re-targeted much more aggressively within Facebook and other social sites.

I build ads that remind them to just straight up buy our Bullymake Boxes.

These ads are effective because we target the users (and this is the KEY) who have already been to the product pages and looked at the actual product we sell. Therefore, they are much more likely to buy.

One thing I constantly see is so many people who just build a BMS ad, throw a bunch of money on Facebook, and wonder why nobody converted.

A BMS ad is a “Buy My Shit” ad. It’s not good and it doesn’t work on Facebook in particular, ESPECIALLY when targeting cold traffic.

You’ll be so ROI negative and out of business so quick. Don’t do that. Warm your audience up with engaging content first.

4. Email Marketing

Now, with all this traffic we’re driving from our social media properties, it’s important to realize that the majority of them are going to bounce (aka leave your website).

However, what’s absolutely imperative is that your pages include an e-mail capture popup.

Yes, popups are the devil. But yes, they are necessary.

By doing this, I’m able to capture 30-150 emails a day depending on my advertising spend. The image below is from yesterday.

On my best days I’ll capture 150 e-mails +. But it really depends on the amount of traffic that rolls through - which depends on my ad spend (usually).

Sometimes I'll be spending $20/day on a piece of content, and a super influencer will share it and I'll get a HUGE surge in traffic.

What’s more? I target SPECIFIC dog breeds through the content I’ve made.

If you’re on a post about Great Danes,
you’ll see this popup:

Reading content about American Bulldogs?
You’ll see this popup:

And this has led to pretty solid email conversions. Considering we average about 3K unique visits per day, you can see how our e-mail list builds quickly.

5. Nurture your E-mail Leads

Now, once people are on your e-mail list you should never just sell to them.

What you want to do is send them… You guessed it. Relevant and engaging content.

This allows for your e-mail list to get more of a feel for your brand and consume your content. It will also boost your open and click through rates in your e-mails so that when you do sell, people actually open the message!

A sales blast every once in a while, isn’t a bad idea. I do it once a week to my list. But if you do it too much, you’ll kill your list and lose leads.

6. Calls To Action Placed In Blog Posts

Sometimes (actually, lots of times) people end up coming to the content I’ve created, seeing the ad I’ve placed at the bottom of a blog post, and converting from there.

You should be placing calls-to-action in your blog posts to make your visitors do what you want them to do!

For example, I’ve been dropping this at the bottom of every single blog post:

It gets people curious after they’ve read our content, and they start clicking around to the homepage and beyond.

Another trick you can do is put an e-mail opt-in inside of your content that basically expands your content for their e-mail address. I don’t do this, but many of the best marketers do.

Where Bullymake Is Going

There are still things we are improving on.

Logistically, order fulfillment is an absolute pain. We are using software but it’s still not easy. We are placing more time and money in our fulfillment process to improve this area.

Our box branding is also getting upgraded into a more branded experience. That’s being implemented this month. Prior to this, we have slapped a label on a box and called it good. Goes to show that a pretty box isn’t crucial for sales, but it does help.

Higher ad spend and scale – it’s taken close to a year to nail our funnel down. We are going to be scaling our ad spend up and bringing in even more sales.

I hope this helped … Or inspired!

If there is interest, I’d like to write about my Pinterest funnel, Twitter Funnel, and Instagram efforts in the future. I’ll also dive deeper into e-mail marketing and SEO.

Keep in mind though that I’ve built this business ENTIRELY through utilizing paid traffic. SEO is important, but it’s not critical if your funnel is built nicely and you’re seeing a positive ROI.

I will be posting regularly over at www.hatzmarketing.com to update our progress on Bullymake, our clients’ businesses, and overall growth and marketing strategies.

Leadership Lessons, Performance & Productivity, Personal Development

Five Reasons You Need To Kill Your Plan B In Life RIGHT NOW!

I've always been a huge fan of SUCCESS magazine and of the founder Darren Hardy. One of my goals has been to write more and submit my articles to national magazines. This past week I was doubly-blessed by getting an article under the "Editor's Choice" column of SUCCESS Magazine. It has made the rounds quite a bit on social media, and I have to admit I am pretty stoked. I'd like to give a huge high five to those of you that have helped me out with the shares.

The article starts ...

"From an early age, our parents taught us we need other options available in case our wishes don’t work out the way we wanted. When we go to an amusement park, we pick a list of rides to visit because we might not always get our first choice. At Christmas we are told to pick a list of presents because our first option is not always available. We are supposed to have backup options because we may not get our initial choice in life."

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.

Business Mastery

Four Of The Most Painful Business Lessons I’ve Learned

I gave a marketing presentation a couple of weeks ago and shared 4 painful lessons that I've learned after 17 years of business ownership. Please pay close attention to them. Follow them and you'll prosper. Ignore them and you'll flounder and eventually die as a business.

As the business owner your primary job is to market and bring in new business.

Everything else (SEO, Web Design, Email Marketing, accounting, product creation, etc) should be given to somebody else ASAP. (Caveat: As a speaker you obviously have to deliver the speeches too).

Don't be the cheapest provider in your market.

Define and document everything you do in your business.

Someplace in some form you should have a "COMPANYNAME process manual". If you are not around your staff and/or spouse should be able to refer to this to know how to do everything you do.

Invest a lot of money into your marketing.

Don't be cheap in this area. We'll spend $5 on coffee without missing a beat but wince on spending $29/month on something that brings new leads into your business.

Performance & Productivity, Personal Development

Fixed-Schedule Productivity: The Best Way To Build Your Ideal Schedule

What is Fixed-Schedule Productivity?

There are some people that define this as a complicated time management process. However, once you understand the basic concepts it is the easiest and most fulfilling way to manage your life.

Fixed-Schedule Productivity is the concept of limiting your working hours to the best number that works to make you and your family happy. Then you decide what are the important things that you want to accomplish with your life (in reality this should be a pretty short list). Then you eliminate everything that is not important and fit the important things into your limited calendar.

That is it. It sounds easy, doesn't it?

I didn't realize it, but I accidentally started doing this awhile back with my own life. My approach is to look at my calendar and work hard to fill it up as much as possible with repeating tasks. The tasks I am using are the ones that are the most important to my life: Exercising, marketing, flying, volunteer time, family time, sleeping hours, and content production time. Once I started doing this, I realized I had very little screwing around time on my calendar. Which is how your life should be designed if you have big dreams and aspirations.

Keep in mind that this does not mean I'm a workaholic hardass that never screws around. It means that I try to be sure and plan time to screw around. You can feel better about screwing around with your time when you know you have it allocated on your calendar. And the screwing around time is just as important as the highly productive time.

Now I want to show you how you can get started with Fixed-Schedule Productivity.

But before we get started:

You must agree to change your mindset

You must believe that your time is valuable and that you should only be working on things of value.
You must start living and breathing the schedule you make today.
You must be willing to drop projects.
You must be willing to retrain your friends, family and coworkers about your new life.
You have to be willing to make yourself unavailable to the world most of the time. Emails, meetings and ringing cell phones are your new enemies.
You have to start saying no more than you say yes. No to a lot of free coffees. No to 'pick your brain' time. No to projects which are not in your core interest. No. No. No.

Step-by-step to get started:

Take time to think about what your dream day would look like. Where would you live? What time would you wake up? Who would you live with? What would you do every day when you woke up? What hobbies would you take up? How would you relax? How would you run your business? Do some pie in the sky stuff with your mind.
Open your calendar.
Mentally figure out the best part of the month, week, and day when you are the most productive.
Mark off your ideal time to go to bed (for me it is 10pm) and the ideal time you will wake up (for me it is 5am). That is the amount of time where I can get the optimum rest as long as I adhere to those times.
Highlight the times in the morning and the times in the evening when it is best for family time. It may not be every day, and that is OK. But you should have time allocated for your spouse and your children on a regular basis.
Make a list of the non-work-related hobbies and skills that you would like to have. Allocate 2-3 hours every week on improving those skills. Example: I am a pilot and I need to work more on my navigation and instrument skills. I need to work on that a few hours each month.
Add in breakfast, lunch, and dinner. These may coincide with family time.
The most important step: Decide when you will START and STOP being productive for your job or your business. This is the "fixed" part of "Fixed-Schedule Productivity". You MUST be willing to start at the start time that you select. And you must be willing to use the end time as a hard stop time. With some rare exceptions, no work for your brand or company should take place outside of these hours. If you are a computer addict like me, you must be willing to start culling your use of technology outside of these hours.

Now you can start to put the other things in place. If you have an 8-5 job, then obviously you are occupied during those hours at a fixed location. Highlight that. You might also consider highlighting your travel time.
Think about what your major responsibilities are to your organization. Identify those as roles. "Marketer, tech support, visionary, etc."
Start to sketch out one-hour blocks of time when you can work on the most important thing for each role. Example: If you are a one-person business then you hold all roles. But with your marketer hat on, you need to have a few hours each week allocated to marketing. Highlight where those hours are going to be. All of us have multiple roles in our occupation. Now is the time to highlight each role and figure out how much time you are going to spend improving yourself in that role.
At this point your calendar should be pretty full. When I go through this exercise then I have very little time left. When I do have time left, I'll allocate more time towards the more important roles. For me those are marketing and content production.

This is a basic system for using Fixed-Schedule productivity. As I mature, I've been slowly adopting it more and more into my life. If you were to meet me in person right now, I could show you my daily calendar and how this fits into it. I have very little time on my calendar for meetings and one-on-one time. I have large blocks of time allocated to certain tasks each week. Those blocks are immoveable. Unless it is a very extreme case, I don't take meetings or calls during those blocks of time.

I've decided what the most important things are in my life, and I've decided to fight for the time to complete them. you should too.

To read more great articles by more smart people about Fixed-Schedule Productivity:

Click here to read what Ramit Sethi has to say about the topic.

Click here to read what Cal Newport has to say about the topic.

I'll be writing more about this topic later. But now I need you to reread this blog post, open your calendar and get started. don't postpone this and think you'll get to it tomorrow. You won't. If you think you'll get to it later, then you are adopting the same mindset that you have most of the time. If that mindset is not working for you, then it is time to take a different approach.

Please share your results below in the comment section once you have completed the steps above.

Business Mastery, Performance & Productivity, Personal Development

Three Things Every Entrepreneur Should Ask Themselves Every Hour

Entrepreneurs - Always be asking yourself the following questions:

… Is my current activity one that is moving my business forward or growing my visibility?

… Am I being productive or am I screwing around?

… How much do I plan to market this week?

There are many things to look at when it comes to running your business. But the three above helps keep me focused and stop me from screwing around (too much). Lack of focus has severely hurt my business in the past, so I can speak from a place of experience. If you don't smack yourself on the side of the head every now and then, you'll get into the downward spiral of busy but not productive. Fight that. Fight it hard. You are an entrepreneur. It is your job to create a kickass business. It is your job to put food on the table and provide for your family. You can't do that by screwing around.

A. Move forward. B. Be productive. C. Market a lot. That is how we succeed.

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