The IM Inside Track

What would you do if you could become a lot more successful in just 20-weeks? It’s possible… if you have a plan and are willing to work hard. That’s exactly what this is all about.

I’ve found that people tend to do well with very short, easy to digest lists. So, that’s what I’m giving you right here.

Now, it’s one thing to read information and it’s quite another to really take it to heart and implement it in your business. Take each of the principles below. Focus on one of them every week. Over the course of several weeks, you’ll have a new mindset and you’ll be well on your way to incredible levels of success.

Now just one warning… each weekly item can be read quickly and you can say to yourself “sure I’ll do that” and then you move on to the next and the next.

It’s OK to read them all once, now, but really take it week by week. Focus on one item each week. Get the principle ingrained into your soul. Make it become a habit, make it become “you”. Print out the item for the week or better yet, write it out in longhand, and put it beside your computer keyboard or somewhere else in sight, so that you see it constantly for the week. Again, allow the suggestion to become “you”.

Really, do this, and let me know how it works out when the 20 weeks are done.

Week 1: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes-

Many people hold themselves back because they’re terrified of making mistakes. They stay in a very safe zone, doing things they know have a very small chance of failing. You have to pay attention to whether that “safe zone” is doing anything for you. Are you as successful as you want to be right now? Do you have as much power in your business as you want to have? You don’t— which is why that safe zone isn’t doing you any favors.

You have to be okay with making mistakes. Develop a solid plan for your business and take a leap of faith. Some things won’t work out for you and other things will. But you can’t grow if you don’t try new things. The most successful marketers know they will make mistakes— they even look forward to it. It’s an opportunity to learn and grow every time.

Even if what you try fails more than it succeeds, remember that you stop doing the failing things quickly, but the successes can continue indefinitely. One successful venture could indeed change your life.

Week 2: Be passionate about your business-

Do you look forward to working every day? If you don’t, there might be a disconnect. That’s not to say that business is always fun and games. There will be tasks you don’t particularly love doing. But overall, you should feel passion and joy in your business.

You have to find something that’s in line with your values and desires. I’m not telling you to drop everything and try to make money with a hobby or with the thing you love most— there might not be any money in that at all. But you need to be excited about your business plan and goals. If you’re not, it’s time to make some adjustments, or at least to sit back and think about things.

Week 3: Work hard and play hard-

You’re going to burn yourself out if you try to work nonstop. The most successful people know that they have to work hard and play hard. Structure your workday in a way that helps you get more done in a shorter amount of time. If you do it right, you can accomplish more in 3 hours than most people accomplish in a day.

Reward yourself for a job well done. You’re going to burn out and come to hate your business if you never have anything to look forward to. Giving yourself time to play and take your mind off business will also allow you to be much more creative. Make sure you structure this time rather than fall prey to distractions during work. You can get through a few hours of work if you know you can goof off watching TV or playing golf afterwards, or spending time with the family, right?

Very few marketers seem to do this, and that’s a mistake because it can bring you a lot of traffic and a lot of exposure. I’m talking about writing articles that are meant for reprint.

You write articles for yourself and your own purposes all the time. However, your influence only spreads so far – especially when you’re first starting out. Wouldn't you love it if you could write an article and have dozens of marketers post it with a resource box pointing to your website? It would end up all over the web-- in their newsletters, on their blog, off-line, in e-zines, in magazines, and more. This is basically free advertising, branding, and traffic that is mutually beneficial.

Consider writing these articles that are available for reprint, that include an author’s resource box. Anyone is free to use these articles as long as they leave your resource box intact.

Why would anyone use your article? For one thing, it offers their audience a different viewpoint-- yours. They write a certain way and are limited by their own experience. They love being able to showcase content from others in their niche. For another thing, using reprint articles saves them a ton of time. Maybe they’re running behind and don’t have anything to post on their blog that day. So, they grab your reprint article and use it. They benefit and you benefit!

Tell people that they are allowed to share certain content, and they will. This content will spread wide and far, all over the web and even offline. Remember that you'll get a lot further if you leverage the needs and wants of other people (in this case, people who want high quality content for their own business). Find ingenious ways to help others help you get more traffic, and you'll win.

Turn Your Articles into Free Reports

You should always strive to use your content in more than one way. It’s always surprising when people spend a lot of time writing articles or another type of content and only use it once. If you’re writing high-quality content, you’re actually doing people a disservice by not using it multiple times over. People want and need to see your great content. You can save yourself a lot of time and energy by repurposing quality content.

One way you can repurpose content is to collect your very best articles into free reports. Let’s say you’ve written 10 phenomenal blog posts that you really consider being your key content. Gather those up and edit them into one report, saving it as a PDF.

After you have this longer report ready, you can sell it. You can earn some great money by publishing it on your own, offering for sale via Amazon Kindle, or even using it as a freebie bonus offer for something you’re selling or promoting.

Or, you can use the report is a list builder. You can offer it for free for those who sign up for your email list. People love to get great content for free, so it’s a no-brainer to go this route.

There are no limits to what you can do with these excellent reports. And the beautiful thing is it really doesn’t take that much more time and effort to gather articles you’ve already written. Putting these articles in the form of a report gives even more value for those who will receive them.

Create Rebrandable Reports

Have you ever wished you could just get other people to do your marketing for you? Well, that’s actually possible. You just have to give them a good reason to do it. Rebrandable reports give them that reason.

You can write reports (or gather previous articles in the form of a report) and allow people to put their own affiliate links in for your product, or even for other products. They don’t get to change the content or your branding, but they do get the chance to earn from your efforts. This gives them great incentive to post your report all over the web, email it to their list, offer it on their website, and so on.

Learn to Manage Your Time

It’s difficult to be successful if you always procrastinate and can’t seem to get large projects done in a reasonable amount of time. Big projects can certainly be intimidating, and we’ve all been there… but, you can’t do the bare minimum and expect to succeed beyond your wildest dreams.

With that said, you certainly don’t have to work all day, every day either. We all have 24 hours in a day. How is it that someone with the same 24 hours you have is dramatically more successful than you are? It’s not because they’ve magically invented more time. It’s because they use their time better. In fact, they likely get a lot more done than you in a much shorter amount of time— leaving them space to sip margaritas on the beach, as is the common image of the wealthy.

If you want to become more successful, you need to get much better at managing your time. Part of this comes from knowing where you’re going. It’s important to plan things out. That’s right—actually create a business plan. Set solid, specific, measurable goals. Create a plan for how you’re going to get there.

Then, you can figure out exactly what you need to do to make that happen. This is a huge, huge part of the process right there. Do this and you’ll already be way ahead of the game.

Learn to Break Your Projects Down

I’ve mentioned this in books and articles I’ve written in the past. It will really help you to manage your time if you break your projects down into smaller chunks. It makes things so much more manageable. It’s a lot more practical and really helps mindset-wise as well. I wish I could convince everyone to work this way because it’s the only way to get large projects done in our fast paced society.

It’s way too intimidating to try to get large projects done when they’re looming large in front of you. Where do you even start? It seems impossible and will cause you to give up more often than not. Break it down instead. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Break your very large projects down into small chunks you can easily complete whether you have a large work session planned or just a few minutes. Make incremental progress and even the most intimidating projects will be done in no time at all. I promise this will help you a lot- it’s quite possibly one of the most important time management and productivity tips you’ll ever come across. Try it—it will help you out, instantly.

Make the Right Decisions More Quickly

This is a big one. So many people stew about decisions large and small. They take forever to make even the most basic decisions during the work day and it eats up a lot of time when they could actually be… working.

Many people do that— but not very successful and highly productive people. They quickly access relevant data and make their decision.

The next time you have to make a decision, consider this. Your spouse asked you to pick up strawberry jelly. You go to the store, only to find that they have an entire wall full of strawberry jelly. They have it with seeds, without seeds, organic, local, homemade, mixed with blueberry, combined with peanut butter, with sugar, without sugar, naturally sweetened, and artificially sweetened.

How in the world are you supposed to make your decision in the face of so many choices? Having too many choices is the death of decision-making.

That’s why you can’t give yourself forever to stew over any one decision. Figure out the facts, sure, but don’t allow your mind to invent 50 different kinds of “jelly” before you can make your choice.

It can really help if you set a timer when making smaller decisions. Force yourself to make the choice in 30 seconds or 60 seconds and then move on. You need the relevant information and then a limited amount of time to make the decision. This forces your mind to be more efficient and you’ll usually end up making the right choice.

You’re not going to become successful if you’re producing a subpar product or service—it’s so important to provide value at every turn. You should always strive to do more and do better. You want to become known for offering something premium. You want...

It doesn’t matter what your focus is as a marketer, your email list is likely your most valuable asset. Scratch that—it is your most valuable asset. It makes sense, then, to focus on tweaking your email marketing strategy so you can earn even more.

Many marketers, both new and experienced, are intimidated by email marketing. They aren’t sure how to really connect with their audience in the right way. They aren’t sure how to build the relationship or make sales. Some mail too much and others don’t mail enough. It can be really confusing.

One of your top priorities should be to continue to build your list. This should always be a priority and unfortunately many marketers drop the ball on this. That’s one great reason it’s so important to release new products and get new affiliates on board to promote those products. Also, put up squeeze pages and give away freebies and continue to drive traffic to those squeeze pages.

Have you spent enough time recruiting affiliates? That’s another way to keep building your list and it’s something a lot of marketers leave off of their list of ways to build your email list. It’s actually one of the best ways. You can create products and get affiliates to promote them—every customer gets added to your email list. It’s a win-win. If you haven’t set that up, it’s time to make that a priority.

Also, remember to use your content in creative ways to build your list. That will make it easier for you to earn more as an email marketer. Work hard on building your list and that will pave the way for you to get more from the emails you send.

Focus On the Relationship to Get More From The Emails You Send

The truth is that you can earn much more than many marketers even if you have a relatively small list. The secret is in the relationship you have with your list. Build a great relationship where you really care about the people on the other end of the screen and it will serve you well—in more than one way.

There are many marketers out there who just care about the money. They will send out email after email, plugging away products and not caring about people at all. They’ll promote pure junk just to earn a buck. And they very quickly burn their list out. They lose all trust and their list members stop opening their emails at all.

But that’s not my style and I’m sure it’s not your style. People write me frequently to tell me that my emails are one of the few that they open from a marketer. I like to think it’s because they can sense how much I care about their success and they know they can trust me.

That’s the kind of feeling you want all your list members to have. Email them great content. Show you care about them. Be helpful and informative. Promote products you truly believe in and that you know can really help them. Warn them of bad products and things they should stay away from.

What kind of email marketers do you tend to respond to the most? Who do you feel like you have an actual relationship with? You can get some great clues as to what you should do from that. Success leaves clues. You’ll find your personal style and what works for you and for your email subscribers.

Brainstorm ways you can build an even better relationship with your list members. Maybe it’s mailing them more content, asking for feedback, asking how things are going in their lives, being more open about your own life and success, and so on. The relationship is something that builds over time and it is very valuable.

Write Better Emails

Of course, you always want your emails to convert better. How can you get more people to open your emails and then click through and buy? You’ll do better and better with time, but it never hurts to learn the tricks of the trade.

One of the best things you can do is find other marketers’ emails you’ve purchased from in the past. Find ones you think were exceptionally well written. You can pick these apart and figure out what makes them tick.

Organizing Your Research

You've done a lot of research and digging for your book and now you're ready to get started writing. Wait a second – not so fast! You're just going to overwhelm yourself if you try to sift through your research as you write. T...

It’s very important that you prepare your environment before you visualize so that you can see real habit change.

Yes, you can and should visualize anywhere, and whenever you need to. With that said, you’ll have better results if you have a quiet, positive environment than if you have a loud, negative environment.

What is a positive or negative environment? There are certain environments that just set us up for failure. For instance, if you’re in the middle of your family room with three kids running around, that’s going to be difficult.

Or, if you’re in the middle of a loud coffee shop (without noise-canceling headphones on), that’s going to be difficult. It’s better to be quiet. It’s better to be alone. You don’t want to have to fear anyone judging you. You shouldn’t care if they are… but you’ll probably feel a lot better if you are alone in the beginning.

You should also be somewhere you feel safe and happy. If you’re in an office situation where you’re constantly getting berated and feel incompetent, it’s going to be difficult to truly let your positive feelings come through.

You don’t want to associate your attempts to change your habits for the better with a negative environment. With that said, you can also use visualization to turn negative emotions and thoughts into positive ones.

Try to go somewhere quiet, where you feel safe and confident. Maybe that’s your bed in the morning, on your back deck, in the shower, or somewhere out in nature. It needs to be somewhere where you don’t have other distracting responsibilities, such as driving a car or watching children.

You can even create a little environment for yourself to help facilitate your visualization. Find a quiet corner of your home you can make more comfortable.

Find a great “spot” outside where you can go when you need to. Set up a place of meditation. You know your needs and personality best— do whatever you need to do to make sure you have successful visualization sessions.

Getting Distracted As You Visualize

One problem many people run into when they try to visualize their way to success is that they get distracted. Some people get distracted by external influences. Hopefully, that has been handled in the previous section since you’re taking care to have the best possible environment for your visualization sessions.

But, another problem is that you might get distracted internally. While you’re visualizing your way to success, other thoughts might sneak in. Maybe you’ll start to experience self-doubt. Maybe you’ll start to feel silly since this is all new to you. Maybe you’ll find your mind wandering and you wonder what you’ll have for dinner that night.

These are all very common problems. You need to learn to acknowledge these when they occur and to dismiss them. If you start to doubt yourself as you visualize, tell yourself it doesn’t matter— it’s your vision and you can dream up what you want to! It’s okay to dream big… in fact it’s a lot more than okay, it’s totally desirable and what you’re striving for.

Also, remind yourself that you’ve already set specific, measurable goals that you’re sure you can achieve. Remind yourself that others before you have been successful. If they can do it, you can do it.

This can all help you when you deal with self-doubt. Mostly, though, you need to dismiss that feeling of self-doubt. Again, over and over again, remind yourself that if others can be successful doing what you want to do, you can also.

In an ideal situation, your visualization sessions will be strictly positive sessions where you prime yourself for the real thing. The self-doubt will start to go away as you start to have true success with this strategy. You’re on an enlightened, important path and you’re changing every day. It will get easier and easier to dismiss the nagging doubt.

If you find your mind wandering, you should learn to recognize it.

There are so many great ways to choose great book topics if you’re stuck. And once you’ve chosen a topic, there are easy ways to generate ideas for what you should put in your book to make sure your audience will love it!

Finding Problems to Fix

One ...

Earning More as a Product Creator

As a product creator, you're always looking for ways to earn more from each of your products. It can be discouraging sometimes. You have a fantastic library of products you've created for your audience. When you launch those products, you seem to do well with sales. Your list grows and you're proud that your product is helping your audience.

Your hope is that your customers will love your product so much that they'll go through your back catalog and buy absolutely everything you put out. The problem is, they might not even know about the other things you're selling.

This can be really frustrating for you. You may have even heard from customers that they would have bought more from you if only you were selling more. Through a forced smile you tell them about all the products you have for sale. They're shocked that you had all that on the market. You're shocked that they had no idea.

It's clear to you that once customers know that you have more products, they eagerly want to buy more from you. That makes you feel great because it means they love what you're selling. You work hard creating your products and you create them specifically to help your customers. They aren't doing much good, though, if they aren't actually in the hands of your customers in the first place.

Occasionally, you'll get that rare, amazing customer who is so loyal to you that they actively seek out your products. They look for your new releases and buy everything you put out. That makes you feel fantastic. What if you could double, triple, or quadruple the number of customers like that? What if you could turn half of your customers into huge fans of your work who get addicted and want to buy everything you put out?

Unfortunately, you know it's much more likely that people buy one or two of your products, but then they fall off the radar. It's not that they don't like your products-- that's not it at all. If they were aware of them, they'd buy them. But they have other products to buy. They have other products they're interested in. If people aren't aware of something they typically aren't going to go out of their way to seek it.

As a product creator, you're not content with this-- or you shouldn't be. You work so hard on your products for so long, that it shouldn't be a 'one and done.' By that I mean, that your product should sell for you now and years from now. It should be a passive income earner for you. It's really disappointing for you if your product sells when you launch it and not at all beyond that.

It's time to change that-- and I'm going to give you solid strategies that will show you how. You can sell more products... without doing a bunch of extra work. You'll be happier and make more money. Your customers will be happier as well. Your products are designed to help them, right? Now you can help them even more because they'll be buying more of your products.

Cross Promoting for More Money

Let's talk about cross promotion. If customers take a look at your products right now, do they have any way of knowing that you're selling additional products? This might sound oversimplified, but there are so many other things you're thinking about when creating a product that this is one you may not have thought about.

Once someone has gotten to the end of your product-- let's say it's an ebook-- what's their mindset? It's probably (hopefully)- "Wow! That was great- I'd love to read more of this person's work!"

If you don't have a link or mention of any other work you're selling, they'll close the product on their hard drive and go about their business. They've learned something and enjoyed it-- but that's the end of the 'story.'

Let's try a different scenario. They get to the end of your product and they've found it really helpful. Right after they've finished, you link to a very highly related product of yours-- something you know would be perfect for a customer of that product.

What I’m going to say next might simply shock you— there is no right or wrong way to visualize in order to see real habit change. You can’t do it “wrong” … which I find very freeing. With that said, I do have some suggestions for you. I’ll get into those suggestions in more depth, further on.

Basically, though, you’re going to be creating a picture or movie in your mind. You’re going to see yourself doing these things. Yes, it’s sort of like a purposeful daydream. You’ll choose specific times to visualize and you’ll do it in a specific way…your way.

I recommend you get yourself a quiet space and close your eyes and all of that. Yes, it sounds almost like a meditation, because it is. You just need to see it in your mind’s eye in a way that appears real to you. How you do that is up to you.

I suggest you “visualize” with all of your senses. This is mainly a visual exercise. However, your goal should be to make this experience as real as possible. You want to be able to smell, taste, touch, and hear when you visualize. You want to really immerse yourself in the vision. If you do that, it will be all the more real to you. If you do that, it will be so much easier for you to live it in real life.

Let’s say you want to make it a daily habit to write 3,000 words for your job or business, or maybe you want to start publishing as a side-business on Kindle. It would be a difficult thing to fit in, especially if you’re already really busy and haven’t made daily writing part of your schedule before or if you’ve tried to before and it just hasn’t worked out.

Every day, you would close your eyes and see yourself going through the motions of writing 3,000 words that day. You’d see yourself looking at your to-do list and goals, smiling happily as you sit down to your computer to get started working. You’d see yourself typing, feeling good and positive that you’re getting it done today.

That’s all visual. You’d add in the other senses as well. As you visualize, hear your fingers as they slide across the keys, confidently clacking as you get those words on the screen. Smell the smell of the coffee that sits on the desk in front of you.

See yourself reach a particularly great part in your writing. Then, reach down and grab your coffee to take a sip, tasting the fresh, aromatic beans as the warmth slides down your throat.

Feel the perk of energy it gives you as you easily and happily reach the end of your 3,000 words. Feel yourself stretch as you stand up, surprised as you look at the clock in your mind’s eye and find that you got it done so quickly and stress free that you have extra time left over.

That’s just one example. You’ve used your senses in this vision. Doesn’t it feel real? Substitute the habit or goal you’re trying to reach. What do you smell? What does it sound like? Get your emotions into it— how do you feel? Try to associate very positive emotions with the habits and actions you’re taking. See yourself easily achieving your goal. Literally go through all the motions, sped up, in your mind. This is your vision, so make it whatever you want it to be.

Let’s go through another example. Let’s say you’re trying to make it a habit to exercise for 30 minutes a day, because you have the goal of losing 5 pounds this month.

Close your eyes at the start of the day. See yourself happily getting your exercise gear on. Feel the way it slides on your body, enveloping you snuggly. Feel proud that you’re sticking with your commitment. See your water bottle sitting next to you.

Grab it and sip it and taste how the cool water feels as you stand up to prep for your workout. See yourself walk over to the TV to put your exercise DVD in. Smile as you see your favorite workout expert come on the screen— appreciate how motivating they are for you.

Watch yourself warm up. See yourself happily and excitedly following the workout. You’re sweating, keeping up, looking great, and feeling good.