The IM Inside Track

There are some traits you should have if you’re going to be a great coach. You may have been born with some of these traits, but you can work on developing the others. Nothing is going to hold you back if you’re determined to be a great coach.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to get into the mindset of a coach. At this point, you’ve probably been the one being coached, not the other way around. It really is a mindset switch. Are you really ready to lead other people? I think you’re ready— you just have to convince yourself of that.

How Do You Know You’re Ready?

You’ve learned so much from other people. You’ve read countless books and gone through countless courses. You read blogs and news articles daily. You belong to forums and social media groups related to your industry. Most importantly of all, you put it into action. You’ve achieved at least some success with everything you’ve learned.

Now you have the itch. You’ve seen others who are where you used to be. They’re struggling, and you know they could use some help. You see them making simple mistakes and floundering when all it would take is some simple direction. Are you the one who can give it to them?

I happen to believe that you are the one who can help them. There’s a reason you were lead to read this guide today. There’s a reason your gut told you that you were ready to start helping people newer than you.

Think of the Coaches You Admire

Consider the coaches you admire. Maybe you’ve hired coaches in the past, or maybe you have one now. What was it that made you want to hire them? Did they help move your business forward?

Consider what it was that you did or didn’t like, and what you might do differently. Later, we’ll go fairly in depth about how to analyze the methods of fantastic coaches so you can use the methods you love and improve on the methods you don’t.

Switch Your Mindset

You’ve already moved your mindset from buyer and dreamer to doer. You’ve achieved at least a small level of success. Now it’s time to do another mindset switch. You’re not just a doer; you’re a teacher and a leader. You’re another step up on that rung because you’re going to help people achieve their dreams. Isn’t that a fantastic feeling?

You’ve climbed the ladder of success, either by cold hard experience of your own, or by being pulled up the ladder by someone that’s above you. Now it’s your turn to be the one pulling someone else up that ladder.

You can help them avoid the mistakes that your experience helped you learn, and teach them what others have taught you.

Brainstorm Cool Things You’ve Done in Your Business

It’s time to motivate yourself a bit more if you’re having trouble making this mindset switch. Get out a piece of paper and a pen and set the timer for 5 minutes. Brainstorm some of the best, craziest, neatest, most innovative, and most fun things you’ve done in your business. Don’t censor yourself— just write.

When the timer goes off, read through your list. I’ll bet you’re smiling now. You’ve accomplished some really great things, in some fantastic ways. You’ve done things you probably wouldn’t have even dreamed of just a short time ago.

Now do you see what you can offer others? You’ve overcome some challenges. You’ve accomplished things others would love to accomplish. You’ve been successful where others haven’t. You’ve been creative and innovative in a way others are jealous of.

You’re doing people a disservice if you don’t pass that along. You owe it to people to help them do some of the same things. They’re going to be so appreciative and happy when you start offering your services.

Get to the Heart of People’s Problems

Go to an Internet forum in your niche. Browse through and take notes on some of the most frequent problems people seem to be having. What really gets people down? What are they most passionate about?

After you’ve read through their questions, were you able to answer them?

Optimizing Your Kindle Cover

After you’ve chosen your topic and book title, it’s time to consider your Kindle cover. Some Kindle authors even choose to have their cover created, or create it themselves, before the book is even written.

It can actually be really motivating to have your cover sitting there, ready as you’re writing. It makes the work appear finished in your mind - or at least makes it inevitable that it will be finished. You’ll be a lot more likely to follow through with Kindle publishing. Believe me, you will sometimes need this extra motivation when you’re in the early stages and success is just a dream.

Unfortunately, it’s not always easy to create great covers for Kindle books. It can be especially difficult to create one that looks professional and will capture the eye of your potential readers. Many people try to create their own covers and don’t really have an eye for design.

Hiring Someone to Create Your Kindle Covers

That’s why many Kindle authors choose to hire others to create their covers for them. There are people these days that solely focus on creating Kindle covers for clients and they’ve gotten very good at it—they know how to optimize your cover for success. Many of them are very reasonably priced, too.

When you outsource the design of your cover, you do have to consider who holds the rights to the graphics used for the cover. It’s probably best for you to purchase the rights from a stock photo site and then pass those photos on to your graphic designer to be used. This protects you and ensures you hold the correct licenses to use the photo for your cover.

There are many graphic designers on Fiverr.com who will do your cover for you. Many of them do a great job, but you should pay attention to their ratings before you hire them. It’s not that $5 is so much to lose, it’s that you don’t want to lose your momentum.

$5 for a cover is definitely not too pricey and it’s something everyone can afford. But, especially as you become more successful, you may want to use more specialized and renowned cover artists. This can cost hundreds of dollars but can be worth it, especially since you can sometimes see an instant boost in sales by changing your cover to something better.

In fact, there’s a tip right there. If everything seems in place with your Kindle book but you’re not making sales, try changing the cover—it just might help. Some people have seen dramatic increases in sales with a simple cover change.

Designing Your Kindle Covers Yourself

What if you still want to create your covers yourself? It’s easier than you might think, but you’ll still need to practice. Some graphic designers sell Kindle book cover templates that you can use with something like Photoshop or Gimp (the free, harder to use open-source version of something like Photoshop). This makes it easier on you and is kind of a halfway point between hiring someone to do your cover and doing it yourself.

There are also certain tools out there, such as KDRenegade or E-cover Designer software that makes it really easy to design even if you don’t have design skills. Specialized software allows you to design from scratch or includes cover templates (sometimes for an upgraded price) that you can use as a starting point. The covers end up looking really nice, and don’t cost you hundreds of dollars per cover.

It’s worth mentioning that Kindle and CreateSpace have cover designers included in their publisher interfaces these days, and that might be something you want to try out. Just note that these are not as flexible or as full-featured as some of the other options. Still, they are totally free so it might be worth trying out.

What It Means To Have a Good Cover

So, what does it mean to have a good cover? There is no simple definition. I will recommend that you really brand your author name or pen name on your cover.

Before you write your first draft, make sure you’ve chosen a great topic, researched, organized your research and thoughts, and have created your outline. Have you done all that? Great!

You've done the preliminary work, so pat yourself on the back. You are now ready to go ahead and write your first draft. There are no excuses. Now that you've created your outline and done your research, the book is practically going to write itself. Seriously – it's super easy to write the book at this point.

It doesn't matter if you've never written a book before in your life. You absolutely can and will succeed with writing your own Kindle book. Not only that, but it will be well organized and very valuable to your audience if you take the time to organize and outline.

Now, you just have to decide how many words you plan to write each day as you work on your first draft. Don’t think of it in terms of writing a huge “book.” Think of it in terms of easily managed daily word counts. Break big tasks down and make them laughably easy to achieve each day. Small things add up to big things.

There are several options that will help you reach the proposed 10,000-word count. Adjust these numbers according to how many days you want it to take you to complete your book, and how many words you plan for your book to be at the end.

I highly suggest you write your assigned word count each day when you're at your freshest and most motivated. For some people, this means waking up early and getting their word counts in. If you do best in the morning, this is the plan for you. Other people work best at night. Maybe you like to work after everyone else in your household has gone to sleep for the night. In that case, save your word counts for the nighttime.

I want to make it clear, though, that you have to do whatever you have to do to get your word counts done even if it means writing in non-optimal times. Maybe that means writing for 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes on your lunch break, and an hour at night time. You might have to make some sacrifices in the beginning until you get into the flow of things.

Make a plan. Remember that you have to treat this like a business. You have to make writing your book a priority in your life. That means making it a firm part of your schedule. Don't save it for "when you have time." You'll never have the time! You have to make the time and set the time in stone.

If you're having trouble deciding how many words you should write each day, then I suggest you write at least 1430 words a day. This is the perfect number for a daily word count if you want to write a Kindle book in seven days.

Does 1430 words a day intimidate you? It shouldn't. Now that you've already outlined and researched your book, it should seem really easy to write. Writer’s block? It’s impossible when you set yourself up this way. All you have to do is sit down, look at your outline, and put your fingers to the keyboard—no excuses.

You could write 500 words in the morning, 500 words at lunchtime, and 500 words at nighttime. Or, you could write 1000 words in the morning and 500 words at nighttime. Or, you could do it all in a burst.

Note that there are many, many writers who can write 1430 words in one hour. This is something you should strive for. With the right tools and practice, you absolutely can write at least 1430 words in an hour. That means you can definitely find a way to write 1430 words in a day – even if it takes you a few hours at first while you're trying to get the hang of it.

Do you still think you can't do it? You have to toss that kind of thinking out the window. You absolutely can do this. You're so organized now and so ready at this point that the book will practically write itself. There are no excuses. By following the method I've outlined for you so far, all of the old excuses are out the window. You can and will do this in just seven days.

As a special note,

You’re feeling very low energy these days. Your energy’s nowhere near what it used to be for you. In days past, you’d get up early, get a ton done before lunch, enjoy a nice break, and then finish off the day with the energy of a teenager.

You’d even have time left over to have fun and do what you wanted to in the evenings. Life was good. These days, it’s nothing like that.

These days, you’re lucky to get half the things done that are on your daily to-do list. You’re really struggling. You’re super unproductive. Your to-do list is passing you by and you aren’t sure what to do about it.

If only get back half of the energy you used to have, then you might have a chance.

Is it even possible?

What happened to you? You feel your body, mind, and spirit have totally changed. Maybe it’s a product of age or maybe it’s a product of the things that life has thrown at you. In many cases, it’s the combination of all of the above.

The fact is that you’re not ready to throw in the towel and you never will be. You’re stronger than that, even if you don’t feel like it right now.

You’re ready to regain your energy. You know that if you can boost your energy you can get so much more done and achieve our goals. Let’s talk about ways you can do that, even if you feel like you’ll have to crawl over the START line, much less the FINISH line.

Before we dive into methods of getting your energy back, I will warn you that some of these are things you’ve heard before. For example, we all know, even if we don’t pay much attention to it, the fact that healthy diet and exercise are surefire ways to regain energy. It’s easier said than done, but it is tried-and-true advice. No, it’s not “sexy” – but it does work.

In addition to the things we all know and have a hard time doing, we’re also going to talk about some out-of-the-box ways to regain energy.

If you’re committed to this, you can make it work, you can regain your energy, and you can be more productive in your business and in your life in general. You can feel better and healthier and happier overall.

What’s Zapping Your Energy?

Before we go further, let’s talk about what’s zapping your energy in the first place. It might be that you have some poor habits that are leading to negative consequences.

Let’s go ahead and talk about your diet. What are you eating on a daily basis? That old adage that, “you are what you eat,” is absolutely true. If all you’re doing is feeding your body with junk, then you’re going to get low energy as a result.

Do you exercise? Even though you expend energy while you exercise, it also energizes your body and ensures that you are healthy. If you don’t exercise, you will just become less and less energetic over time- to the point where you’re unhealthy, prone to disease, overweight, and depressed.

Do you tend to be very stressed out lately? If you’re very stressed out, then that can definitely take away from your energy.

You will also tend to have less energy and more stress if you are overwhelmed with your work. So, that’s something we’ll discuss as well.

What’s zapping your energy differs depending on who you are. It’s time to sit down and do a self-assessment. Brainstorm what you think is taking your energy away. If you need to, visit with your doctor and see if there are any nutritional deficiencies or lifestyle changes that need to be taken into account.

Eating Better and Working out

Let’s talk about eating better and working out. I promise you that I’m not going to tell you to eat terrible and uninspiring foods. This isn’t about depriving yourself.

However, you will have more energy if you eat healthy, whole foods instead of junk foods. This isn’t about eating chemical laden “low calorie” foods that have become so popular. This is about eating like your mother, grandmother, and her mother ate. Get back to local, healthy farm foods, for example. Don’t eat packaged foods.

Get out and take a walk around the block,

What if there was some kind of magical word that automatically saved time? That would be a word worth knowing, right?!

Truly, there is such a word. In fact, it’s a very short word with only two letters. It can be a tremendously freeing word when used appropriately and timely. That word is…

No!

One of the reasons that people get overwhelmed with too much to do is they have an inability to say “No”. None of us have more than twenty-four hours in our day, so we simply cannot say “Yes” to everything! And we don’t even need to say “Yes” to things that will overcrowd our schedule.

Learn this…

You need a margin in your schedule.

That is, you need time to breathe. You need time to not feel rushed. You need time in case there are delays. You need time to be at your best. You need time to devote to things of importance.

Margin. That’s word that should be engrained in your mind when you begin looking at your upcoming calendar and schedule. Learn to say “No”.

Let me give you three key areas in which to do this…

Demands. First, you’ve got to learn to stop taking on too many projects. Learn to say “no” whenever possible to additional projects until you have completed the one(s) you are already working on. This INCLUDE those “small” projects that seem like they’ll be “quick and easy” – they can sometimes be the worst of all! Learn to say “no” to requests that are going to crowd your schedule.

Distractions. How much time is wasted on chasing after shiny objects?! Learn to say “no”! There are many things that come along that we can waste away time “reviewing” and “researching”. If it’s not related to the task at hand, leave it alone! You do not want to spend any time on things that will hinder your productivity towards the objective you are working on.

Diversity. This keeps coming up and there is good reason. It is better to master one thing than dabble at many. Why? Because it sucks the life out of time management to try too many things. Every time you try something and then discontinue it, you have in essence WASTED valuable time. Sure, there are times to test things out – but not at the expense of abandoning things you have already invested in. Learn to say “no” to trying every new thing that comes along when your other primary activities are suffering as a result.

I get that saying “No” doesn’t come easy for many of us. I’m vulnerable to the temptation myself. No question about it. But we cannot use that as an excuse!

Take one good look at your schedule from the past two weeks. And take a look at the schedule for the next two weeks. If it’s overcrowded, there’s a good chance you need to learn to say “no”.

Remember, you need “margin”. You need a cushion in your schedule so you don’t feel overwhelmed and hurried. It’s important that you be able to work productively without the added stress of knowing you’ve got to rush to get everything done.

When you don’t say “no”, bad things usually happen as the schedule is overcrowded with activities and appointments…

Quality of work suffers.

Health is affected.

Production is reduced.

Relationships are strained.

Opportunities are missed.

Enjoyment is sacrificed.

I’m sure the list could go on if I were to press the point.

There’s a secret word that can solve this. And that word is “No”! Learn to say it to save time.

If you enjoy writing, selling PLR can be a fantastic way to earn an income from home. Actually, selling PLR can be a great way to earn an income from home whether you particularly enjoy writing or not. The fact is that PLR content, or Private Label Rig...

We all learn from the past, but that doesn’t mean we should dwell on it. Do you find that you kick yourself over and over again for things you’ve done wrong in the past in your business? Do you allow yourself to move on or do you punish yourself for failing to follow through or for making mistakes? It’s time to make some changes.

Yes, we should all learn from the past. We should get used to analyzing our mistakes and process so we can do better next time. The most successful marketers make an incredible number of mistakes— many of them costly. But they don’t dwell on those mistakes. They don’t allow those mistakes to hold them back; they only allow them to push them forward.

What’s your mindset? Are mistakes a horrible thing that will destroy your business or are they something you can turn into a process to become even more successful?

It has to be the latter. In fact, you should look forward to the mistakes you’ll inevitably make in the future because it will make you that much smarter.

So while it’s important to learn from your mistakes, it’s more important to enjoy the present and look toward the future. Don’t be satisfied with what you have today because you’re destined for more. But allow yourself to be happy with what you have in the moment. We only get one life so we may as well enjoy it.

Take a look at everything you have going for you right now. You have a roof over your head, the chance to take your business even further, and whatever success you currently enjoy. You also have control over everything that happens to you from this point on. That’s a powerful, and uplifting, feeling.

You’ll be able to accomplish a lot more if you’re happy and if you allow yourself to enjoy life. Don’t force yourself to work constantly— remember; that will make you less productive anyway. Do focus on things that are going well and how pleased you are with your current path.

The past is in the past. There’s nothing you can change about it, you can only learn from it and move on. Enjoy your present and look forward to your future. This is part of having a mindset of success.

One of the absolute best ways to move forward—and to get excited about moving forward—is to challenge yourself. So, that’s what we’re going to talk about next.

Let Yourself Be Challenged

You can’t grow and leave the past in the past if you’re not being challenged. Just as you have to learn, read, and absorb new information on a frequent basis, you also have to challenge yourself to do new things. This means taking risks, doing things that are out of your comfort zone, and trying things no one has ever tried before.

Very successful marketers tend to be creative and innovative and learn from their mistakes and past experiences. They do things that set them apart in life and business. That’s not always easy— even if they make it look like it is. Are you ready to take risks and challenge yourself if it means being richly rewarded in the future?

If you’re not pushing yourself to do new things, you’ll stay stagnant. If you’re not as successful as you’d like to be right now, it means you need to grow. You can’t grow in business if you’re not challenging yourself.

How do you challenge yourself? You can try new things, attempt something that is very risky but can pay off with major rewards, you can invent things and make them better, you can try a new skill, you can do whatever it is you’re drawn to do… as long as it terrifies you.

Not everything you challenge yourself with will pay off, and that’s okay. Remember how much there is to be learned when you make mistakes. But some things will pay off in major ways, making you a greater success, seemingly overnight.

There’s a major rush that comes from trying something new. You’ll feel alive in a way you’ve never felt before. It can give you a total, instant mindset shift that will help you become much more successful.

Many Kindle authors seem to just pick their titles haphazardly. They don’t really think about it - they just assume that as long as the title basically says what needs to be said, they’re good to go. I urge you to pay more attention to your title than ...

Successful people have a thirst for knowledge. They want to know the latest data and facts. Some people strive to become more successful but they think they know it all. That’s the surest sign of someone who will never actually become successful. The most successful people in the world know that they don’t know everything. They never stop learning.

Absorb Knowledge in a Variety of Ways

You can’t just learn from one person or in one way. Seek out knowledge, data, and information from a variety of places. If you want to become truly successful, then you need to develop a thirst for knowledge. Read books, attend webinars, attend seminars, and find a mentor or coach. Subscribe to an alerts service on the web (like Google alerts, Textwalker, or Mention) to be informed of the latest news and blog posts in your area of Interest. Use scholar.google.com to find relevant research studies.

This will help you become very well rounded. In my book, Unlock the Creator in You!, I teach the importance of filling your mind with new information. The more input you have, the more creative and innovative you’ll be. Learn from those who have a different perspective than you have. It’s fun and exciting because it’s very well known that the most successful people are also the most creative and innovative. They zig while everyone else is zagging. That’s the way you need to be.

I completely understand how difficult it can be to fit this kind of learning in. You’re working so hard on your business and you have so much going on in your home life that it seems next to impossible. I assure you, it’s not. There are some great, easy ways you can absorb new information without taking away from anything you need or want to do.

First, you have to schedule it in. You likely don’t have time during the workday. Maybe set aside 30-60 minutes each evening dedicated to catching up on the latest information and learning things that are going to help move your business forward.

It can also be very helpful to learn how to speed-read. There are some interesting studies on how speed-readers absorb and learn more than those who read word for word.

Also, just because the book in front of you has 500 pages doesn’t mean you need to read every word or every page in that book. It’s completely fine to be selective.

Maybe not every chapter applies to you. Maybe you have a specific need right now. It’s fine to focus on those things— it’s more beneficial, actually.

Be Selective About What You Learn

That doesn’t mean you should buy every book and product that comes your way. For one thing, you don’t have enough time to read everything you come across. For another thing, it can be distracting to focus on information that doesn’t directly contribute to your goals.

Are you someone who frequently tends to buy into a new marketing course or method? If so, you’re stuck in learning mode. There’s a difference between learning new information that will help you run your business better. You’ll never get ahead if you’re always buying the next bright shiny object.

You must be selective. If your business model is helping offline businesses advertise online, why would you buy a new book on how to promote products as an affiliate on Amazon? Then why would you buy a book the next week on making it big as a Kindle author?

Sure, it’s great to have multiple streams of income but you’ll never get there if you don’t follow through with one business model first. Once you have a solid handle on one income stream you can start in on other income streams.

It’s also very important to trust those you’re learning from. There are unfortunately some marketers and business people who only create products to make a buck. They don’t practice what they preach and they don’t know what they’re talking about. Make sure those you look up to walk the walk.