4 Ways to Improve Your Business – and Your Life
Issue# 2717
- WEALTHY: Spending habits of the rich (Michael Masterson)
- HEALTHY: When you don’t want to give up ALL your carbs… (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Aldous Huxley on self-improvement
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Making every year your most productive and lucrative year so far (Brian Tracy)
- How to be simple and complex at the same time (John Forde)
- It’s Good to Know… just when you thought it was safe to go into the water
- Add “trenchant” to your vocabulary
* Highly Recommended *
Put More Money in Your Pocket with Step-by-Step Cash-Generating Secrets from “America’s Top Copywriter”
McGraw-Hill calls him “America’s top copywriter.” Joe Vitale calls him “a prolific advertising genius.” American Writers and Artists, Inc. calls him “a legend.”
Now’s your chance to call him “mentor.”
This past March, world-class copywriter and Internet marketing superstar Bob Bly revealed dozens of his top secrets for making money with the Internet.
Better yet, he gave step-by-step instructions for how each attendee could follow in his footsteps, including how to:
- Earn 20 times more per hour than you do now, starting almost instantly…
- Write an email in five minutes that could give you nearly 5 figures in profits in a week…
- Generate online revenues of $20,000 a month “working” as little as 2 hours a week…
- Use a shockingly easy “hidden logic” method that can produce 25% – 50% more sales…
- And much MUCH more.
If you couldn’t take part in this intensive weekend seminar, I’m sorry. It was well worth every cent of the $5,000 cover charge.
But you can still get Bob’s specific, easy-to-follow advice for how you can make piles of cash selling information (or practically anything else) online.
If you’re looking for proven methods for putting cash in YOUR pocket, you need to read on here.
A Little-Known Secret of the Truly Wealthy
Carlos, one of my Jiu Jitsu instructors, is living the American dream. He came to this country to compete in mixed martial arts and earn his fortune as a champion fighter. While building a stellar win-loss record, he lived on club sponsorship and fees for giving lessons. For the first three years of his time here, he managed to support himself and his wife on less than $15,000 a year. Recently, he captured three title belts – and now fights at the top level in Japan. His typical payday has gone from $500 to $25,000.
“The problem with making more money in America,” he told me, “is that every time you make an extra dollar you spend two.”
How true. The first couch I bought cost $400. I remember thinking, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” And it never did. The couches I buy today give me no more pleasure, comfort, or space. Yet they cost much more.
What happened? The truth is that my own success has victimized me. In earning more, I allowed myself to spend more on things like couches. If I had gotten more out of it, that would have been fine. But I didn’t.
Why do we do it? Why do we feel the need to spend more when we make more?
Here’s what I think. When you are poor, you are surrounded by things you think you would like to own but cannot afford to buy. After a while, you equate the feeling of unsatisfied desire with poverty. And when desiring begins to feel poor, having seems like it will make you feel rich.
Master wealth builders understand a secret that it took me years to learn: You have to keep your spending down while your income increases.
[Ed. Note: This article is an excerpt from Michael Masterson's bestselling book, Automatic Wealth: The 6 Steps to Financial Independence. For more insights into becoming - and staying - wealthy, check it out today.]
“There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”
- Aldous Huxley
4 Ways to Improve Your Business – and Your Life
By Brian Tracy
There’s an old saying: “The more you do of what you are doing, the more you will get of what you’ve got.”
In other words, if you want to improve your business – and your life – you have to do something different from what you are doing today.
One of your goals should be to always make the current year your most productive and profitable year so far. And there are only four ways to do it. Here they are:
1. You can do more of certain things.
What are the things you should do more of? Obviously, you should do more of the things that are working best for you.
For example, as a businessperson, you should use more of the marketing and sales methods that are getting you face to face with your best customers, the ones who buy the most readily and who most appreciate the special features and benefits of your products and services.
It is amazing how many marketers lose track of their most effective selling methods. Instead, they keep experimenting with something new, different, and unproven. And then they are surprised when their sales drop and their income declines.
2. You can do less of other things.
Many people fall into doing things that are not working particularly well. But because they are comfortable doing those things, they continue doing them.
You must continually think about the value of your time. You only have so many minutes and hours each day. If you spend your time doing things of low value, that time is no longer available to you to do things of higher value. You should do less and less of those things that are giving you few results, so you have more time to do more of those things that are giving you better results.
3. You can start something brand new.
You must be open to the idea of starting something that you have never done before. As Jack Welch, GE’s legendary ex-CEO, once said, “Our greatest competitive advantage is our ability to learn and apply new ideas before our competition.”
In times of economic turbulence, especially – with customers, markets, prices, demand, and competition rapidly changing – perhaps the most important thing you can do is commit yourself to being an aggressive, lifelong student of the profession of selling.
It is amazing how many people come up to me at my seminars and tell me that one method or technique that they learned at a previous seminar, or from a training program of mine, had changed their lives. They had doubled and tripled their incomes. They had gone from rags to riches. They had started their own businesses and become millionaires. And it was all because of a single, simple idea that they opened their minds to through continuous study. You should do the same.
4. You can stop certain things altogether.
Ask yourself this question: “Is there anything that, knowing what I now know, I would not start up if I had to do it over?”
You must be willing to discontinue or eliminate any activity – in your business or personal life – that, given your current knowledge and experience, you would not get involved with again.
Many people are lemmings. They continue running in the same direction, doing the same things, getting fewer and fewer results, until they go over the cliff.
Top people are always open to the possibility of, and the need for, doing something completely different. They are willing to stop doing anything that no longer works. They don’t get stuck in their “comfort zone” and stay there just because it feels good. They are willing to take the risks that go with embarking on any new course of action.
Is there anything in your life – right now – that you should do more of, less of, start, or stop?
The answer to that question will get you on track. And if you keep asking it, every day, it will help guarantee that you’ll become one of the most successful – and highest-paid – people in your industry.
[Ed. Note: Are you prepared to handle any situation in business and in life? Setbacks are unavoidable. How you deal with those setbacks will determine whether you succeed or fail. Be prepared for any situation with Brian Tracy's "Crunch Point." Order now and get 5 valuable bonuses. Learn more here.]
* Highly Recommended *
Immigrant’s Son Unlocks the $5K a Week “Money Vault”
He grew up in a working class family. Clawed his way up the ladder of success to the $1,500 suits and the $10,000 watches.
Along the way, he stumbled across the combination to a vault 30 times the size of anything he’d ever dreamed of.
Now, in a special report free to ETR readers, he reveals how you could be siphoning $250,000+ a year from the markets with just 30 minutes of “work” a day.
Get your combination to the “money vault” here.
The Simple Secret of… Complexity?
By John Forde
Usually, the writer’s mantra is “K.I.S.S.” (Keep It Simple Stupid.)
And most of the time, this rule works just fine.
Yet, we also know that writing – especially the kind of writing we do in sales letters and editorially – is more and more about building relationships. And aren’t relationships complex, built layer upon layer?
Well, maybe there’s a way to reconcile this insight with the rule about simplicity.
First, I’d say that yes, the relationship you build with your readers – from the first paragraph of your sales copy to the last, or through a series of articles or blog posts – does need to grow and evolve. And the process of growth and evolution is never simple.
Still, this doesn’t mean you can just jumble your ideas together. Even rich and layered relationships are united by a few very simple objectives. Maybe even one simple objective, depending on who you talk to. Even in a sales letter that drills home one distinct message, the copy also builds trust, nurtures a sense of urgency, intensifies desire, and so on.
Second, I’d say that you can never discount the power of the passion behind written ideas.
You can’t write well about something you don’t believe in. And you write better about things you believe in strongly. I say this because passion about ideas, it seems to me, is the glue between the “power of one” single-idea insight… and the context of complexity in which it can still be couched.
[Ed. Note: To get more of copywriting expert John Forde's wisdom and insights into marketing (and much more), sign up for his free e-letter, Copywriter's Roundtable, at www.copywritersroundtable.comand get a free report about 15 deadly copy mistakes and how to avoid them.
Powerful, effective writing, whether in ad copy or editorial articles, is just one part of a profitable online business. To get a complete guide to starting and growing a profitable Internet business, check out the Internet Money Club: Independent Learner Edition.]
How to Eat Rice and Pasta on a Weight-Loss Diet
Almost everyone loves rice and pasta, but it’s tough to enjoy them when you’re on a diet trying to lose weight.
Fortunately, it’s possible. Here’s how.
First, you need to avoid the processed, “white bread” versions of rice and pasta. The whole-grain, unrefined versions take a little longer to cook, but are much better for you. And they fill you up.
I’ve spent the last month on a vegan diet as part of an experiment, and I’ve been able to eat as much rice and pasta (and bread) as I’ve wanted – while still losing body fat – thanks to choosing the right sources.
These are your top sources for whole-grain carbohydrates on a weight-loss diet:
* Wild rice
* Quinoa – a high-protein grain
* Spelt – a high-fiber grain
* Kamut wheat pasta – a high-protein, high-fiber grain that is tolerated well
by folks who are usually allergic to gluten (a protein found in wheat).
The kamut pasta is delicious, and as good as any traditional “white flour” pasta you’ve ever had.
[Ed. Note: Eating the right foods is just one part of slimming down and firming up. To burn fat and build muscle, check out fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training program right here.
For more easy-to-implement ideas about how to live longer and feel better, get your free subscription to ETR's natural health newsletter.]
It’s Good to Know: Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Go in the Water
Great white sharks, it turns out, are calculating hunters. University of Miami researchers have discovered that they use strategy and don’t engage in random attacks. Staying just out of sight, they stalk their victims (seals, for example – we’re not talking Jaws, here), focusing on the most vulnerable prey and waiting until they’re alone before striking from below.
The researchers also found that individual great whites have a “base of operations” from which they hunt – information that could be useful in avoiding shark attacks on humans.
(Source: Associated Press)
* Highly Recommended *
Transform Your Life In Only 15 Minutes A Day!
Would you be willing to set aside 15 minutes a day if it meant you could…
- Pay off your credit card bills?
- Rebuild your financial portfolio?
- Buy or sell a house?
- Grow or start a business?
- Lose weight?
- Prepare for early retirement?
I thought so.
I’d like to show you exactly how you can dramatically increase your chances of achieving these (or other) goals in 2009.
Word to the Wise: Trenchant
“Trenchant” (TREN-chunt) – from the French for “to cut” – means incisive or keen; clearly or sharply defined.
Example (as used by Megan Marshall in a New York Times review of We Two by Gillian Gill): “Gill’s vivid and deeply reasoned account of Queen Victoria’s marriage should be read alongside Phyllis Rose’s still trenchant Parallel Lives, with its portraits of the marriages of five 19th century British literary lions.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker... build your self-confidence and intellect... increase your attractiveness to others... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's Words to the Wise CD Library.]
The advise of Brian Tracy is very pragmatic. Through the years of my selling and marketing career, I have followed through on everything he did advised. I am glad there’s always something new to derive from him (although most of what he said is a review of what we learned in the past).
My 2 cents worth of advise is a compendium of what he just wrote today:
Think about the things you want, never about the things you don’t want.
When you want something you never had before, you must do something you’ve never done before.
If you want to do something you’ve never done before, you must be willling to become someone you’ve never been before.
This is an adage I have always advised my own people.
Hi Mr. Masterson!
I’m a big fan of yours and have read several of your books. I’ve noticed that you’ve never recommended network marketing. What do you think about network marketing as an industry and the opportunities presented? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks so much. I love your books!