You Have Never Thought This Way Before

It was a fine March spring morning – much like yesterday – when my troubles started back in 2006.

I woke up from a strange dream, and felt like I couldn’t breathe properly. My heart rate was elevated. My hands were numb. Things got worse as the day went on…

Before I finish, I want to let you know that I shared this story for the first time ever onstage last Saturday morning, and it’s so important I had to tell you too, plus I’m going
to share a new way of looking at your product that you’ve never thought about before. And they both tie together.

Let me explain…

You see, that day back in March of 2006, I started suffering from an anxiety attack that went on to last 8 weeks.

It would ebb and flow, some days worse than others, but almost always started with an abrupt 4am wake-up with elevated heart rate and finished with me lying in bed unable to breathe deeply or fall asleep easily.

This went on for 8 weeks, all at the same time as I was working with my first-ever business coach, Tom Venuto, to re-launch my Turbulence Training fitness program to the world.

Plus, in those days, I was also still training clients in the gym about 15 hours per week. Eventually, one day the anxiety got so bad I had to ask my 55 year old, obese client to take me to the hospital.

How’s that for irony?

And embarrassment.

Hours later I left the hospital after chest x-rays turned up nothing, but with a heart-rate monitor strapped to my chest to monitor my heartbeat for the next 24 hours.

Now thanks to Canadian health care, the emergency visit didn’t directly cost me any money, but 5 years later I’m still ashamed of the taxpayer money I wasted.

When I got home from the hospital that day, I went online and must have typed “how to get rid of panic attacks” or some phrase into Google, because I stumbled across an ebook on Clickbank called “Panic Away”.

I bought it and immediately went searching for the solution.

Found it in the first line of Chapter 2. It was 5 simple words.

Problem solved.

But I would have paid more than $1,000 to have had that info 8 weeks earlier.

Since that day I’ve “fought off” several small anxiety attacks thanks to deep breathing patterns I’ve learned, and I know exactly what lifestyle behaviors to avoid (excessive caffeine, alcohol, bad foods, stress, etc.).

Now on the bright side, the anxiety attacks (or panic attacks, or whatever they were), were the deciding factor in me going out and getting ol’ Bally the Dog, my chocolate lab. I’m
pretty sure he helped get me better too.

But of course, I know what you’re thinking…”Why am I telling you all of this?”

Two reasons. Two VERY important reasons.

Reason #1) You need to know my “mess to success” story.

You also need to know – as I told the audience on Saturday – that there is nothing exceptional about me or the majority of other people who are successful online.

We’re not smarter than average, we’re not geniuses, we’re not lucky, and it wasn’t easy for any of us…but we just never, ever, EVER give up.

Perseverance was what kept me searching every day for a solution to my anxiety problem, and it was what allowed me to finally achieve the lifestyle of my dreams with my website business.

Perseverance, the willingness to keep going know matter how bad things may seem, is a cornerstone of every success story.

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

So I’ll never stop showing you reasons why I “should be a failure”, because if I can do it, you can do it too.

You can overcome whatever obstacles you have in your life, from lack of support from family members, to lack of money, to lack of time and overabundance of stress.

There’s no obstacle we can’t overcome.

If you persevere and don’t quit, and have an “I’m going to succeed come hell or high water” attitude, then you WILL succeed. Period.

2) This ties in perfectly with another lesson I taught on the weekend from the stage.

One of the biggest problems I see among beginner “internet marketers” and website business owners, is that they take too long to finish their product.

It sits there, 80% finished, and yet six or nine months since they started, they just can’t complete it and get it online and up for sale.

I don’t know what it is that holds them back…fear of failure, perfectionism (which is probably just a way of disguising fear of failure), self-limiting beliefs…not sure.

Whatever it is, this inability to get things done has sabotaged dozens of success stories.

But…

Put yourself in your prospect’s shoes.

They are the ones that are hurting.

They are the ones sitting there, on the other end of the computer, looking for the solution to their problem.

The one that you selfishly keep at home on your computer, 80% complete, protecting you from criticism while they suffer from whatever problem it is that you could be solving.

Just imagine if the author of Panic Away had never finished their e-book.

How many more days would it have taken me to find the solution?

How many more nights would I have had to suffer through?

How much more frustration would I have had to endure with every shallow breath that I struggled with?

Sure, maybe I could have found a solution the next day or a couple of days later…but that would still have been a day or two more of a near living hell.

And if you don’t have your product done, that’s what your prospective clients are going through right now.

Another day of living hell while in debt because you haven’t finished your credit repair solution.

Or another day of feeling tired and ashamed because they don’t know how to stop their overeating.

Another day of embarrassment of going to the gym and not knowing what to do because your workout isn’t out there to guide them.

Or another day stuck in a dead-end job with their soul dying each day, because your e-book on an incredible new business opportunity sits 90% complete on your hard-drive.

What’s your excuse? What’s your fear?

Whatever it is, it pales in comparison to the pain of your prospect right now.

Think about that.

If that’s not enough to get you to finish your product, to take action on building a site, to start creating your mission of helping people, then maybe you need to re-evaluate how much you really want to help people.

And if you’re sure that’s what you want to do, then I want to issue this challenge to you.

Have your product done in no more than 14 days. There’s no reason it can’t be done.

Book a hotel conference room if you must. Pay the money upfront so you won’t back out. Arrive there early and lock yourself in and don’t come out until you have a product to
put online.

Your prospects will thank you – and love you – for it.

They need your help now,

Craig Ballantyne

“”Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race” – Calvin Coolidge