Ask yourself this: “When was the last time I felt fear?” I’m not talking about stress. We all have some of that every day. And I’m not talking about fear of a bear in the woods. What I mean is feeling out of your depth, uncertain of the future or not up to the task.

I gotta tell you, last month I was feeling great. Life was smooth sailing. For six or more weeks I hadn’t had a work day that was over four hours long and most were only two. The holidays were spent with family and friends. I watched movies, ate good food, bought gifts loved ones. It felt like there wasn’t a care in the world.

So, naturally, when the new year hit I was starting to get concerned.

Don’t get me wrong. The time of renewal was well appreciated. We all need some of that. I wouldn’t change anything. But as of January 1 I knew it was time to shake things up again.

For me the reason for being is happiness. Life has taught me time and again that, though happiness is not a destination, happiness requires growth. Growth requires stepping out of your comfort zone. When you step out of that zone, you can definitely feel it.

It feels unfamiliar. The unfamiliar is scary. But growth requires trying new things. It’s just like your muscles. They won’t grow if you don’t put stress on them.

Comfort is something we all cling to. Think about it. What’s really at the root of your fear? Let’s take the specific example of being afraid of starting your own business. Chances are you’re afraid of not being able to pay the bills and not being able to buy stuff. Yes, there are a few needs that we can’t do without for survival, but I’m sure you’re well above that threshold.

It’s interesting how much we can cling to comfort. The truth is that our lives are filled with “comforts” that don’t amount to anything compared to living your purpose, feeling passionate every day or connecting with family and friends.

I’ll admit. I love stuff, too. I love stuff that makes my life more convenient. I love stuff enhances my daily experiences. I have plenty of stuff, too.

But that stuff is NEVER more important than my freedom, living my purpose or my relationships with others.

When I quit my job and started my business, I gave up some comforts. But that is what I needed in order to shake my life up and find freedom. When we moved to New York City we sold or gave away half of our possessions. But that is what we needed for my wife to go to school and pursue her passion.

Was I afraid in both those cases. You betcha! I had some level of discomfort every day. . .and I wouldn’t change a thing.

Think about some of the greatest moments in your life

• The times when you learned huge lessons.
• The times when you where happiest
• The times when you grew the most

I’m going to guess that just prior those times were other times of discomfort, fear and maybe even despair.

So here’s the big insight.

When you allow yourself to feel fear, move towards the unfamiliar, feel discomfort or stretch the limits your abilities, that’s when you can be certain that their will be a net growth in your happiness.

On the other side of that fear is an increase in purposeful living. Your relationships will be stronger. And you feel enjoy more freedom!

For me the only failure would be to not have these things — to stop growing.

That’s why I knew it was time to shake things up after the holidays. I started looking at things that scared me most — things that I was avoiding.

So take a moment to check your pulse. Are you afraid? If not, then ask yourself why. What are you avoiding? It’s time to shake things up a bit and experience the fear.

You deserve to be even happier than you are now. You are capable of being happier. You will rise to the occasion. You have the creativity within you to make it work.

So look into the fear and say, “Bring it on!”

What’s something that scares you that you will take on this year?

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This is a great time of year. It tends to get us thinking. It instills extra desire to make good things happen. That’s an incredible thing and worth harnessing.

So how can we make the most of it? I’ve seen and heard a lot this week about what people want to make happen this year. Sadly, it often seems there’s one critical element missing.

We’ll talk about what’s missing in a moment. First there’s something I want to encourage you to get rid of.

Get Rid of Should

How often do we describe our goals using the word should?

It’s an insidious, guilt-ridden word. It’s often laden with the fear or regret. That might sound a bit dramatic, but if you stop to think about it you’ll see what I mean.

So often should represents arbitrary standards, coercive expectations and extrinsic motivations.

“I should exercise more.”

“I should eat better.”

“I should spend less money.”

There’s an unspoken “or else” at the end of these kinds of phrases.

Try increasing your awareness of how and when you use the word should. Are you setting goals out of fear of regret, to impress others or just because someone else is doing it? Are you basing your goals on unfair expectations or external influence?

If so, you’ve set yourself up for failure before you’ve even started.

I find that should brings a constant low-grade discontent that I would rather live without. Let’s do away with should and replace it with something more constructive.

The Reason Why — An Action Activator

So when you set a goal, avoid the word should. Instead, try completing the following sentence. I call it the Action Activator.

In order to have more ____________, I want to ____________.

This phrase helps you to dig into your psyche and pull to the surface your intrinsic motivation. It defines your reason why.

Here are some examples from my own life.

• In order to have more happiness I want to spend more time connecting with my closest friends.
• In order to have more peace of mind I want to invest more money into steady wealth-building.
• In order to experience more energy throughout the day I want to exercise every day, first thing in the morning.
• In order to live more passionately I want to create more than I consume.
• In order to feel healthier and more vibrant, I want to consume more water instead of soda.

One of the biggest reasons we fail to reach a goal is that the motivations are largely extrinsic which science has proven is a poor motivator. Sadly this is how we’ve been programmed to think by society, our parents and the school systems. So cut yourself some slack. It takes time to reprogram. I still have a ways to go.

Kicking in the Afterburners

If you want to take it to another level, take the Action Activator and mix it with one of the following techniques.

• Reading passionate stories by others that have already achieved what you want to do
• Look through sites or magazines to find photos that represent your desire
• Write a paragraph or two about what it will feel like as you do the action and move towards the goal
• Discuss and brainstorm the action with a like-minded and trusted person

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After all, success is about progress not perfection. Perfection continually looks forward with frustration at an unattainable horizon. Progress remembers to look back, learn and appreciate where you’ve come from.

In the spirit of progress, here are the top lessons I learned in 2011. Then I’d like to hear what you’ve learned.

1. Progress Not Perfection (Savor the Success)

If someone were to ask me on the street if I was successful, my first instinct would be to say, “not yet.” If I don’t consciously stop to recognize what I’ve already done, I fall into a perpetual state of feeling like I haven’t “arrived” yet. I always feel there’s still more to be done: “I’ll be successful when I earn X dollars a month…” or  ”Once I quite my job…” This line of thinking is called the arrival fallacy.

The goal moves forward before we even entirely reach it. So the truth is I’ll never feel successful with this outlook.

However, when I make a conscious effort to realize what I have accomplished and allow myself to savor it in the present then I feel much happier and more successful.

In our weekly strategy meeting, Sterling and I have an agenda item called the Breakthrough Focus. It sounds something like this.

“Yes, that launch didn’t hit our top money goal, but our team really worked together smoothly. We were a lot less stressed than the last time we launched that. I spent half as much time managing details and more time on the content creation that I enjoy.”

This is also why the Academy has a section for members to share their monthly breakthroughs. Success is now. Progress not perfection.

2. I Don’t Need to Work my Tail Off to Deserve Success

Somewhere in my life I adopted the belief that fulfillment and well-being will only be received once your achievements are “good enough.” Until then I didn’t deserve to feel good about myself and my accomplishments.

Part of this is a side-effect of my Achiever strength. It drives me every day to work hard and get amazing things done. On the flip side, it leads to a constant unease in my mind that I haven’t done enough yet to allow myself to stop and enjoy what I have.

This year, for the first time in my life, I took several continuous weeks where I allowed myself to not less than four hours a day on business. One of the goals was to prove that my business would still grow and nothing would fall apart even if I took some time to focus on other things in my life.

It hasn’t always been easy. My mind nags me constantly. But I was able to spend time with family and friends, learn to things and prepare for the birth of my first child. As I look back on the last several weeks, I can see that I enjoyed the time I spent. I didn’t have to be in front of my computer every day to deserve feeling content.

AND…I still had the best year yet income-wise.

3. Results are Better than Effort

I’ve been programmed by society to value how much time and effort I spend more than the results I produce.

We’re so programmed that a days work is 8+ hours. So often we fill that time with activity so we can “feel” productive with very little thought to the results that we produce.

It might feel good in the moment to read 20 blog posts, check Twitter constantly, choose just the right color for your business card and attend to whatever “squeaky wheel” shows up in your inbox, but often these are just ways to avoid producing actual results. Results-producing activities are often the scariest. They require putting a bit of “skin” in the game. There’s always the chance that the results won’t be what we wanted. Avoidance is a hard habit to break.

But when I’m conscious about my time and get into the right flow, I can get done in two hours what I used to spend eight or more hours to do. The key to doing that is getting rid of the 80% of what you do that is only producing 20% of the results. The energy, time and creativity that is freed up will boost your productivity exponentially.

Instead of gauging success based on how many hours I worked, I prefer to identify the two most important things that I can do that day to reach new people and bring new money into the business.

What Lessons Did You Learn?

How about you? What were the big lessons you learned in 2011? Please share your insights in the comments so we can all benefit from your experience.

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It’s the secret that finally got me to successfully adopt an exercise routine that I could stick to longer than any other time in my life. Usually I would only last a week or two with my knew fitness habit, and then it would fall to the wayside.

But this time I did one thing differently and it made all the difference. What was the secret?

I worked on my goal at least a little consistently every day.

You see, previously I would start small by setting a goal to work out 3 times a week. After all, I didn’t want to overwhelm myself. I figured if I got that down I could then up it to 4 and then 5 days.

The problem is it was too easy to lose momentum. Every day I would have this little conversation with myself about whether not that day was one of my exercise days or now. Even if I set specific days (e.g. Monday, Wednesday and Friday) it still wasn’t enough to reach critical momentum.

I needed to be more consistent.

Consistency leads to habits. Habits for the actions we take every day. Action leads to success.

It’s like when they launch a space shuttle. Most of the fuel is burned early on to move against gravity and the friction of air. However, at a point the shuttle finally reaches a point where it doesn’t have to burn nearly as much fuel to escape the atmosphere.

When you first begin changing your behavior (i.e. exercise more, eat less, read more books, etc.) it takes a certain momentum to overcome the patterns that you have set previously. At first you have to expend more energy to escape those old patterns. But as you consistently focus on behaving in a new way, the pathways in your brain literally begin to change.

Over time it becomes easier to maintain that momentum. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.

So rather than just hitting the “rocket boosters” three times a week, I tried hitting them every day.

I told myself that even if I just put my exercise clothes on and got on the elliptical, then that counted as achieving my exercise goal for that day. It didn’t matter if I was on there for five minutes or forty-five minutes. It didn’t matter if my average heart rate was 135 or 165.

At first my goal was just to take action every day. Then with time I could focus on the effectiveness of my actions — the results of my workout.

When I went into the gym every day, I quickly started to feel momentum. It was a lot harder to skip a day when I had done it every day for the previous two weeks. It was a lot harder to rationalize my way out of it. Plus the pressure was off because, again, I was focusing on consistency, not results at first.

And, as they say, within a month the new habit had formed.

So how can you apply this to your internet business?

We teach our coaching students to do at least one thing every day to build your business. As long as you sit down at your desk and take one action that day, then it counts. It doesn’t matter if you did the most important action or even if it produced results. What matters is that you took consistent action.

Soon you will find that momentum kicks in. Working on your business becomes a habit. You will see more results working on your business for 30 minutes a day then if you tell yourself you’ll do two hours a week…at least at first. That’s because you need to form a habit. Habits only come from consistency.

If you want to get even better results, even be consistent with the time of day that you do it.

So, as you think about the goals that you want to set in 2012, remember the following.

1. Success is reached one habit at a time.
2. Habits are formed through consistent action.
3. At first, focus on consistency not results. Later you can work on the effectiveness of your action.

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It was summer of 2005. I’d just made the decision earlier that year to focus my efforts on the budding technology of podcasting. I didn’t know it yet, but I was about to turn down one of the biggest opportunities of my career.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

At that time the first ever Podcasting Expo was announced. It was the first event of its kind and promised to offer the chance to mix and mingle with the movers and shakers of podcasting. When I read the e-mail announcement, my first thought was, “I can’t afford to go.” I hit the delete button and the e-mail vanished.

My wife and I had just moved to one of the most expensive cities in the world, New York City. Earlier that year I had left behind a business in Utah, cutting off part of our income. It was a critical time of transition, so I was feeling very “careful” when it came to money. The $1500 needed to travel to California was significant enough to make me hesitate. Fortunately, I would be given another chance to consider attending the expo.

You see, it was at that event that I met the publisher who asked me to write my first book. The book led to dozens of speaking opportunities worldwide and enough consulting gigs to erase my anxiety of affording a Manhattan lifestyle. It was at the  expo that I forged some of the most important relationships for my business over the the following years. Attending that event gave me the solidified vision and confidence to move my business in the direction that has led me where I am today. And I almost didn’t go!

How Can I Afford It?

How can I afford it? I call this question the Money Activator. It’s been very valuable  in both business and personal life. This simple question has led to a number of enriching and life-changing experiences that I might have otherwise passed up.

I consider myself a generally conservative person when it comes to money. So it’s really easy for me to quickly dismiss ideas with a simple, “I can’t afford it,” rather than get creative and come up with a creative financial solution. I try to catch myself in such moments and immediately switch “I can’t” with “how can I.” The second time I saw an invite for the Podcasting Expo, I chose to use the Money Activator.

Activating Your Money

Of course, asking the Money Activator question means you need to search for the answer. Finding the answer starts with brainstorming. A good brainstorming session is about the quantity of ideas. Write down everything that comes do mind.

Don’t dismiss or judge anything. Look at all possibilities, even the ones that you might usually dismiss right away. Get creative and push past the limits of your usual thought process. You’ll find that possible solutions will fall into one of three categories.

1. Earning more money (e.g. picking up extra hours at work, doing consulting on the side, selling something)
2. Re-assigning your current money (e.g. adjusting your monthly budget, giving up certain expenses, cashing out a liquid asset)
3. Borrowing money (e.g. using a credit card, borrowing from family)

A typical money activation brainstorm might turn up answers like the following:

1. Go an live with our parents for a few months to save on rent
2. Withdraw cash from 401k
3. Pick up an extra client for two months
4. Move to a less expensive apartment
5. Sell my guitar
6. Get an new credit card and only use it for this one goal

Some of those ideas might make you a little uncomfortable. In fact, if you haven’t come up with any idea that make you uncomfortable, or even afraid, to consider then you haven’t pushed your creativity far enough. Keep brainstorming. Incidentally, I’ve used every one of the ideas listed above myself — even the ones that scared me. In the case of the Podcasting Expo, I put it on a credit card and I’m really glad I did.

For me the biggest success breakthroughs have always come after stepping out of my comfort zone.

The Price of Success

I’ve learned that success has a cost. One cost is taking action. Another is facing uncertainty. You can either face a bit of uncertainty OR you can accept the certainty that nothing will change.

The Money Activator helps you find the edge of that comfort zone and push past it. When you do, your creativity and abilities will rise to the occasion. That is when you achieve great things.

Each time you do this, it gets easier. It’s just exercising your muscles at the gym. The trust you have in yourself and your ideas will grow. The level of success that you can achieve grows along with it. That’s why it’s so important to use strategies like the Money Activator.

Investing in Happiness and Fulfillment

I find the Money Activator works best when investing in things that will bring lasting fulfillment and happiness. In my experience, you get the biggest pay off when you invest:

1. Your closest relationships (e.g. a trip to see family, creating memories with your kids)
2. Education (e.g. college degree, developing talents, hiring a coach, attending a seminar)
3. Personal development (e.g. therapy, memorable experiences, new experiences)
4. Tools that empower your passions, strengths and purpose (e.g. I bought a new camera as a creative outlet, to document our first pregnancy and to use in volunteering for local organizations)

That’s not a comprehensive list, but it’s a few of the most important to me.

On the other hand, a new fancy gadget, bigger TV or a bigger DISH Network package don’t typically pay off like this in the long-term.

What Do You Think?

When was a time that you did something that was uncomfortable and it paid off? What other techniques do you use to find creative solutions? What questions or comments do you have about the Money Activator.

Sound off in the comments below…

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The Profit & Loss Statement records how much value has been created (or destroyed) in carrying out day-to-day business activities. It has to be read in conjunction with the Balance Sheet to understand how of that value actually translated to cash.

The financial statement that best illustrates this relationship between Profit & Loss and Cash is the Cash Flow Statement but for some strange reason, this statement is rarely produced as part of monthly accounts and always the least understood financial statement.

However, in order to understand this ‘mysterious’ Cash Flow Statement, let’s first look at the Profit & Loss Statement and how it relates to the Balance Sheet.

 What is a Profit & Loss Statement

The Profit & Loss Statement, as its name suggests, shows:

1. How much money the business earned
2. How much it cost the business to earn the money
3. The net result of (1) and (2) which is a profit or a loss depending on whether (1) is greater or less than (2)

It’s not about money that the business received from its shareholders or that it borrowed. Those are called as “financing activities”. It’s not about money that the business spent on buying equipment or chunky assets that will help it create earnings over time eg buying computers, card, buildings etc. These are termed capital expenditure or “investing activities”. The Profit & Loss is about “operating activities”.

If you think of the Balance Sheet as the “eco-system” of the business, the business transactions that are recorded in the Profit & Loss are ‘invaders’ of that eco-system. Each transaction alters the composition of the Balance Sheet but as discussed in Part 1 of this series, this “eco-system” always remains balanced.

 How does the Profit & Loss affect the Balance Sheet

As explained in Part 1, ‘every action has an equal and opposite reaction’ in accounting. Everything that happens in the Profit & Loss has an equal and opposite reaction in the Balance Sheet.

Let’s use the example of a business that sells widgets. The business has a widget in its inventory (Asset) that cost it $10. It paid for this by borrowing (or owing the supplier) $9 and the business owner put in remaining $1 (equity) which is represented as follows:

Assets ($10) = Liabilities ($9) + Equity ($1)

The Transaction

It sells the widget for $20. Two events have happened here: first, a $10 widget went out of the ‘system’; and almost simultaneously, $20 came into the system. The action and reactions are recorded as follows:

(a)   Record the widget going out of the system

• Deduct $10 from Inventory (Asset)
• Add $10 to Cost of Goods Sold ($10) in the Profit & Loss Statement.

At this point, the Balance Sheet is still out of balance because the 2^nd entry is “extraneous” to the eco-system (Balance Sheet).

Assets ($10 – $10) < Liabilities ($9) + Equity ($1)

The Sales transaction itself then has to be reflected in the balance sheet. How the sales transaction affects the balance sheet will depend on whether it was a cash or credit sale.

 (b)   Record the sales transaction

• Add $20 to Sales in the Profit & Loss
• Add $20 to Cash (Asset) OR Add $20 to Debtors (Asset)

But the Balance Sheet is still out of balance because more value ($20) came into the system than went out ($10) of the system.

Assets ($10 – $10 + $20) > Liabilities ($9) + Equity ($1)

The net effect of the transaction (profit or loss) on the balance sheet has to be recorded as well to bring the Balance Sheet back to equilibrium. Profit belongs to the owner of the business, so it forms part of Equity.

What actually happens here is that the $10 profit gets ‘transferred’ from the Profit & Loss Account across to the Balance Sheet. The Profit & Loss account is a sort of “pass through” vessel rather than a store of value. The Balance Sheet is where value created in the business is stored.

(a)   Record the profit.

• Take $10 from the Profit & Loss
• Add $10 to Equity in the Balance Sheet.

So now you have additional value of $10 that was generated by trading activities showing up in the Balance Sheet:

Assets ($10 – $10 + $20) = Liabilities ($9) + Equity ($1 + $10)

 Why Profit is NOT Cash

Consider what the equation looks like for sale on Cash and Credit terms respectively:

Cash Sale:    Cash ($20) = Owing to Supplier ($9) + Equity ($1) + Profit ($10)

Credit Sale:   Debtor ($20) = Owing to Supplier ($9) + Equity ($1) + Profit ($10)

If the Debtor doesn’t pay you, the Asset side of your Balance Sheet goes to $0. The opposite side of this vaporisation of the Debtor asset is the recording of a Bad Debt expense of $20 in the Profit & Loss Statement.

Assets ($0) < Owing to Supplier ($9) + Equity ($1) + Profit ($10)

When we first recorded the sale transaction, we transferred the profit of $10 from the Profit & Loss to the Balance Sheet. So the Profit & Loss was an empty vessel until the $20 loss (Bad Debt Expense) was recorded in it.

Just as we transferred the profit of $10 to the Balance Sheet earlier, we now transfer the $20 loss to the Balance Sheet. This shows the net loss of $10 on the transaction from go to whoa.

Assets ($0) = Owing to Supplier ($9) + Equity ($1) + Loss ($10 – $20)

The equation is now back in balance but it’s a pretty ugly picture. You’ve got no cash, you have no widget and you still owe the supplier $9 and you’ve lost your $1. So you are going to have to come up with another $9 in cash of your own money to pay the supplier eventually.

This very simple example should underscore two critical business issues:

• Profit is not cash
• A sale is not a sale until you’ve collected the money

————

Siu Ling Hui, the founder of In-Context Finance, is a successful financial consultant who helps to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with obtaining debt finance and equity funding to achieve their business objectives. She also assists business who are in financial trouble to get back on track. Her blog Ruminations by In-Context Finance provides practical business advice for SMBs.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

There’s websites to build, preparation for product launches, social networking and so on. In comparison to all these other activities, dealing with accounting and finance matters sounds about as appealing as a visit to a dentist.

Sound financial management practice is the business equivalent of a good dental health regime. Without it, decay will set in and there’ll be very unpleasant drilling and extraction work by the “dentist” in the form of the tax office, creditors, banks etc.

I have seen many young fast growing businesses falling over because they didn’t have sound financial management practices in place. Ironically, it is when rapid business growth happens that the financial cracks emerge.

THREE FINANCE BASICS FOR NEW BUSINESSES

Get an accountant

Unless you are an expert in accounting and tax, an accountant is one of the key advisors that your business must have on an on-going basis.

Choose a good reputable accountant. Not all accountants are created equal. I have come across some who not only charged like wounded bulls but also provided bad advice. Get recommendations from trusted sources if you don’t know who to go to.

Meet with your accountant before you even commence trading. At this meeting, find out about all the regulatory, tax and other compliance matters that apply to your business such as:

• What are the federal, state and local taxes that apply to your business?
• Do you have to add value added tax (VAT) or goods and services tax (GST) to your services or products? You need to allow for these in your pricing or you’ll end up eroding your profit margins!
• When do you have to do filing of returns and payment of these taxes?
• What kind of record keeping systems should you have for your business? Should you be accounting on a cash or accrual basis?
• Do you have to contribute to pension (superannuation) funds?

Separate personal from business finances

Your business must be treated as a separate and distinct entity from you as an individual.

Open a separate bank account. Only business transactions go through that account. You can only take money out of the business as salary, loan or dividend or partnership drawing (depending on the legal structure). There are different accounting and tax implications for each.

Keep a separate credit card for your business. If your business does not qualify for its own business credit card, choose one of your own cards to use solely for business purposes. Credit cards can be fantastic cash flow management tools for small businesses IF they are properly used.

Why separate personal from business finances?

(a) administrative efficiencies (you don’t want to spend hours trawling through bank or credit card statements trying to identify what is personal and what is business) ; and

(b) clarity for business cash flow planning and management

Plan and manage cash flow

There’s an old saying: “Profit is Opinion. Cash is Fact.” Cash flow is the life blood of a business. Failure to understand and manage cash flow is the most common killer of businesses, large or small.

Cash flow planning and management must be done at  2 levels:

• Strategic or “working ON the business” level; and
• Day-to-day or “working IN the business” level

Even if you have a strategic plan with a full-blown 3-way financial forecasts, day-to-day cash flow management is still essential because cash flow is all about timing. You must ensure that there’s always enough money to pay bills when they are due. Do this with a simple tool that goes by the fancy technical name of “rolling weekly cash flow forecast”. You can set it up on a spreadsheet (recommended) or on a whiteboard.

What is a Rolling Weekly Cash Flow Forecast?

• Detailed week-by-week forecast of expected cash receipts and payments, and the expected bank balance at the end of each week
• Forecast period of 8 to 12 weeks out, and
• Updated every week so you always have visibility into expected weekly cash flow for the coming 8 to 12 weeks (hence the name “rolling”)

Caution! If your business provides refund guarantees on its products, the money that you receive from these sales is NOT yours to use until the guarantee period is up. DO NOT USE THIS MONEY. Isolate it from your “available to use” funds. Either  physcially transfer the money into a separate at-call interest bearing account or as an adjustment to available bank balance in your forecast spreadsheet. Likewise with any VAT, GST or other taxes included in your collections: you have to pay these to the relevant authorities at some point.

Even if you outsource the actual grunt work of the finance and accounting function, you must understand the finances of your business to ensure it survives and thrives in the long term. Get advice or coaching to help you master this essential business skill.

————

Siu Ling Hui, the founder of In-Context Finance, is a successful financial consultant who helps to small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) with obtaining debt finance and equity funding to achieve their business objectives. She also assists business who are in financial trouble to get back on track. Her blog Ruminations by In-Context Finance provides practical business advice for SMBs.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Many successful entrepreneurs will be happy to admit that they don’t consider themselves to be geniuses, or even any smarter than the average person.

So that raises the question, what qualities and characteristics do they possess which ultimately leads to their success? My answer to that question is that they possess a strong business mindset.

What follows is what I consider to be the four most important things that you should remember if you want to strengthen your mindset and be successful in business.

Whether your business is traditional bricks and mortar or internet based the following always applies.

Passion

Let’s start at the very beginning when you’re choosing what business venture you’d like to pursue.

As well as choosing a niche which is commercially viable the most important thing to remember is you have to choose something you’re truly passionate about.

Choosing a business that you’re passionate about will make the whole process of starting and running your business so much easier and vastly increase your chances of success.

Don’t just chase the money and choose the latest money making fad, do something you enjoy, provide good value to your customers and the money will follow.

If you’re not passionate about your work your customers will soon see though you and they won’t be so willing to do business with you.

Action

To achieve anything you’re going to need to take some action. You may have heard of Paralysis by Analysis. Many people become a victim to this, especially in internet business. Don’t be one of those people.

Maybe you’re waiting until everything’s in place, waiting until you know all there is to know about your new business idea and waiting for exactly the right time to start.

Let me tell you now, everything will never quite be in place, you’ll never know all there is to know and there is no right time.

The best time to start your business is now. Make a list of actions you need to take to have your business up and running and start the first action today.

Many great things have been achieved by taking small baby steps. Chipping away slowly at your goals is far better than just thinking about them, even if you make mistakes along the way.

Focus

In internet business there’s always the lure of the latest hot topic. You’ll always be having new ideas and wanting to implement them. There’s a thousand ways to make money in internet business but you can’t do them all.

This is why you need to focus on one or two goals at a time. Only learn what you need to learn to perform the current task, ignore everything else.

Don’t be distracted by the latest fads and any new ideas you have, simply write them down and then forget about them for a while.

Focus 100% on one or two tasks or goals until they’re complete, before you even consider moving on to something else.

Being more focused can drastically improve your productivity. Spreading yourself too thinly amongst different goals, tasks or projects will probably result in you not being very successful in any of them.

Persistence

Whilst I believe that all of the above are extremely important in developing a good business mindset and achieving success, if there was only one thing I wanted you to remember from all this would be Persistence.

The single biggest reason people fail in anything is that they simply give up and giving up guarantees failure.

You need to be relentless in all that you do. Accept that things will go wrong, accept that you might not reach every goal in your given time scales, accept that other people will sometimes let you down.

However, always pick yourself up and carry on. You need to be so persistent and stubborn that it can sometimes be mistakenly perceived by others as arrogance. Ignore criticism and persist until you succeed.

If someone tells you you’ll never succeed because 80% of businesses fail in the first year. Answer as I do and tell them you’ll start five businesses, so by their own maths you’re bound to succeed at one.

What quality, characteristic or behaviour do you consider the most important contributor to your success so far?

Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts…

—–

Jason King is a freelance Software Engineer who has run a number of online businesses and is also in the property letting business. His main interest is teaching people how to developing a good business mindset so they too can enjoy more passive income and freedom. For more information visit: BusinessMindsetExpert.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this post I’m going to talk about the exact process I got through to be highly effective and end information addiction.

What is the PURPOSE for gaining the knowledge?

I used to just pulling in massive knowledge just to have the knowledge.  I would kid myself to think that the info was for later, for when I needed it, but it wasn’t true.  I was just addicted to pulling in more info and not having to take action on it.  I don’t do that now.

I must know the why, why do I need to read this?  Why should I watch this?  Why should I listen to this?  Personally, I might choose to watch a TV show like Dexter, purely for entertainment value, but I’m very clear on what I am doing.  I not longer get my entertainment out of reading 30 blog posts a day.  I want my business to fulfill the use I have for it and my entertainment to be separate.  As an info junkie there was no distinction.

The purpose of gaining knowledge, for me now, is to be able to make that knowledge actionable and is sure it is needed NOW.

The NOW focus

The first step in my process is to answer the question, “Is this knowledge something I need right now?”.  I try to stay very clear on where I am in my business.  I figure out, at all times, exactly where I am and what I need to know next.

An example as a beginner would be, if I didn’t have a website up, I wouldn’t be learning all I could about link building.  Link building cannot happen UNTIL you have a site up.   So, it would be an waste of time to learn about something like link building, since I couldn’t take action right away.  The next bit of info I would need, in this example, is exactly what hosting I should use and what blog system I should use.  So, I would dump the link building info into a file for LATER and I would focus on hosting and blog systems.

I skipped ahead in learning all the time.  Before I had a site up I was an expert at traffic, because I read about it all the time.  By the time I did have a site up much of the traffic info I had read was obsolete and therefor a total waste of time in learning.

If I start reading something and I realize I don’t need this yet, I quickly stop reading, which is hard as an info addict, and I file it for later.  I follow the GTD system for filing.

If it is something I can use now, I go on the the second process.

Taking Action

Once I have figured out that a bit of information IS what I need next, I then have to ask if it is ACTIONABLE.

Now I want the knowledge if there can be an action attached to it.  If at any time during the search I see that the info cannot be acted upon, I generally ditch the search and move on to the next question in the queue.  Sometimes I realize that my question is 2 steps past the action I might need to take and then I switch my search to a more basic question.

I am no longer interested in having a bunch of info in my head that would just be used for sounding like a ‘know-it-all’, but not have any practical use for me.  Like I said before, I would just search for knowledge for knowledge’s sake, like a junkie.  I just had to have the next info hit.

I’m speaking mostly business here, but I have also taken this process to my personal info gathering as well.  As much fun as it is to know some inane bit of info like, how many movies has Angelina Jolie been in, I’m less likely to gather that type of info personally, let alone in business, (like how many launches has Frank Kern made over 1 million dollars?  Why would I need to know that…).

I want to have the ability to take action the moment I am done reading a new bit of info.  That is the main goal for me now with processing information.  In order to stay highly productive with my time I have to be able to have very specific steps of action to take after reading or watching a video or listening to an audio about info that is the next step in my business growth.

This process has lead to much less overwhelm and very quick gratification, because I can actually put to work the info I just gathered.

So, the process I use to stop being an info junkie is to be clear on my next step of action, find and process info on that next step, and quickly take action on the knowledge I just learned.

QUESTION: What process do you use to be more efficient and cut down on overwhelm in your info gathering?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

(HI STERLING)

It’s been 6 years since I have watched a traditional news program, 5 years since I’ve watched an entertainment gossip show, 4 year since I’ve watched live television and nearly 3 weeks since I have read over 50 blogs a week, listened to all of the 25+ podcasts I was subscribed too, unsubscribed to the 30+ email newsletters, and stopped consuming info like it was going out of style. I have truly been more effective and more happy since this massive info dump.

I wrote the original Info Diet, part 1 post 3 years ago, and I thought it was time for an update and a process you can use to stop information overwhelm.

The original cause for this info dump was ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ by Tim Ferriss. That book has been the second most influential book I have ever read, the first being the “6 Pillar of Self Esteem” by Nathanial Branden.   ‘The 4 Hour Work Week’ helped me with a lot of mindset shifts, but one of them was how important my time was.  I was working 12 hours per day, minimum, 7 days a week and I started to check on why that was.  I found that the info diet cut that down considerably!  I had been an info addict my entire life, until about 3 years ago.  I talk more about that in the original Info Diet post, but here I wanted to talk about the upsides of that diet.

For the last 3 years I stayed to that info diet pretty much completely.  From time to time I would go crazy with the podcasts or the internet marketing courses I didn’t need yet, but I actually stuck to it on the whole.  What has come from it has been amazing.

Unclogging the Action drain

Before having a specific info diet process, I would start a topic, somehow get distracted by 3 or 10 or 23 other topics and never finish the first topic.

Being so distracted lead to complete lack of focus and of action, which was very frustrating.  Processing information that way was also very overwhelming as the info would just keep coming and coming and I didn’t have any way to process how I was going to take that info in!

Once I decided to cut out the massive clog of information, I was able to make a process for bring in information.  I was able to pick a few topics and completely focus on them from start to finish.

The Process

In the next part of this series I’m going to show you the exact process I go through to find and act on any info I’m looking for.  My hope is that you will be able to use this process to cut down on the overwhelm of information flowing into your mind and then focus on the correct info that can be acted on.

Go to The NEW Information Diet, part 2

Question: Do you find yourself constantly rushing for one bit of knowledge to another without taking action?  How have you found ways to stop that cycle?

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If I were to list ten key mentoring moments in my entrepreneurial journey to where I am today, one of them would be sitting at that Glazer/Kennedy Inner Circle event.

Earlier this month the paradigm shift that I experienced back then came full-circle. I was asked by Bill Glazer to do both the opening and closing presentations at the Glazer/Kennedy Social Media Money Magnet event in Baltimore.

I always really enjoy speaking live, but this time there was an energy that was extra fulfilling. It was thrilling to be standing on the stage of my mentors with the opportunity to offer the kind of paradigm shifts that I’d experienced many years ago at a GKIC event.

My ending presentation was titled, Social Media Money Magnets: 27 Specific Ways to Make Money with Social Media.

You can watch an video excerpt here which includes three of my social media money magnets.

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That’s why so many people get overwhelmed at the thought of sitting down and writing a coherent and persuasive message. Juggling all of those details can be difficult, and often leads to heavy, boring sales copy.

To combat that, I have two quotations on my wall that have proven to be very useful (and profitable!) over the years:

“You can’t bore people into buying your product.” – David Ogilvy

“People will read what’s interesting to them, and sometimes it’s advertising.” – Howard Gossage

Now that you have a goal when you begin to write… to be interesting for your prospects… it’s much easier to control all of those details and have them contribute to your sales message instead of dominating it.

A quick and easy way to generate interest in your readers is to tell your own story. To do this, you simply explain to your readers why you’re in the situation you’re in. Here are a few examples of the type of story you can write:

How and why you created the product or service you’re offering

Hi, my name is Jane Doe. Two years ago I was going through the darkest period of my life. It was more difficult than anything I could ever imagine… so bad that I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

In a moment I’m going to share with you how I was able to escape that terrible situation. More importantly, I’ll also share how my experience can help anyone transform their lives from the misery of pitch black to a life of happiness, light, and fulfillment.

How the product or service you’re offering has changed your life

I’m Bill Smith, creator of Product X. In just a few moments, I’m going to show you how I was able to go from a complete woodworking novice, to a respected expert craftsman in just one short year.

Why you’re making the product or service available at such a tremendous value

Hello, my name is John Doe, President and CEO of Company A. I’m writing to you today with a very special opportunity that my company has never made available before. Pure and simply… the reason we’re able to offer this to you at this time is because the economy is in the toilet.

With these simple “tell your story” templates, you’ll be able to catch the interest of your prospects – and also make the task of writing your sales letter much easier!

————

Mike Denison is a freelance copywriter with over 20 years experience in direct response marketing, including print advertising, direct mail, online sales letters, and email campaigns. More info at www.logikmarketing.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

I was just reading about a key part to creating a lifestyle of freedom and fulfillment.

It’s a book by our new business coach, Dan Sullivan, in which he talks about the Unique Ability.

Every one has one. Discovering and fulfilling it will bring maximum happiness in life.

He presents four criteria to help you find yours.

1. It’s a superior ability that people notice and value.
2. You’re passionate about it and want to do it as much as possible.
3. It energizes you and other people.
4. You keep getting better at it, never running our of possibilities to improve it.

Discovering your Unique Ability gives you purpose. Purpose is one of the pillars of happiness and a long life.

Our challenge to you is to find at least an hour to brainstorm and ponder on what your Unique Ability is.

In fact, we’d love to hear what it is.

Please share your Unique Ability with the community in the comments below. I’ve kicked things off by sharing my own Unique Ability below.

P.S. I plan to get back to my team-building series soon. I haven’t forgotten.

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Success Factor One: Begin with the end in mind.

Success Factor Two: Avoid bright shiny objects.

Success Factor Three: Understand the lifestyle that you’re trying to design.

Now, let’s move on to the next and final two;

Success Factor Four: Outsource early and often.

If you want to feel great about your internet business, try this (works best with a resource in another time zone):

* Write some great instructions to someone who is working for you. Ask them to do something that you have been meaning to do, but you have not gotten done.
* Send those instructions to your trusted virtual assistant resource before you go to bed.
* Get up the next morning and find that while you’ve been sleeping something wonderful happened — a website that you wanted put up, or some sales copy that you needed written, or some blog post that you needed transcribed was done while you were sleeping.

This is an amazingly powerful feeling, because it lets you achieve productivity in situations where you’re not actually able to devote as much time as you would like to a project.

Success Factor Five: Establish and maintain a work routine.

The most critical thing you can do to ensure the success of your part time internet business is work on it regularly. It’s very important that you establish a routine schedule for working on your business and maintain that schedule. For me, the magic number is 2 hours per night. That may seem like a lot, but this is no different than working out or dieting or any of the other things that you try to do. You’ve got to have discipline and do it every day.

Well, these are my five critical tips for being successful running a part time internet business. Know that it is very possible to have a successful internet business part time. Pay attention to these five recommendations, and you will greatly increase your chances of building a valuable internet enterprise.

My name is Mark Mason from MasonWorld.com and I hope you have a fantastic day.

Mark Mason is a successful part time internet entrepreneur who helps people learn how to make money online with his Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast and Blog at MasonWorld.com.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Start by evaluating your current personal financial situation. Are you in debt?  Do you know what you’re spending your money on each month? Do you have savings and investments?

If your personal finances aren’t in the best shape, begin making a few improvements there so that you have a stronger foundation in place.  Tracking your spending is probably the single most helpful thing you can do to start getting your finances under control.  It’s amazing what a difference seeing just how much you really spend each month (and what you spend it on) can make.

It’s not necessary to wait until you’re completely out of debt or in perfect financial shape to start a business — so long as you’re headed in the right direction and you don’t do things that make the situation worse.  (Of course, it also depends on how risk-averse you are.)

Many people think that starting a business requires having money to put into it, but it’s possible (and often wise) to bootstrap your business so that you only spend a small amount of money initially.  You can use money that you earn from the business itself if you need to make further investments later. Bootstrapping a business often means being creative — and going minimal.  Internet-based businesses are ideal for this.

You don’t need things like office space, new furniture, business cards, letterheads, fancy logos, and promotional materials when you’re just starting out. (Or sometimes ever.)  You just need an internet connection, a little bit of money for hosting and a domain name, and your time. 

While you don’t need a business card or fancy office furniture to start a business, there are a few things that you should never do without when getting started.

Remember Taxes

Number one on that list is setting aside enough money to pay taxes every time you make money from your business.  In the United States, you’ll probably need to pay federal and state income tax, self-employment tax, and possibly sales taxes and local taxes.  Be sure to talk to a tax professional or the tax authority in your area to see what you’ll need to cover.

The Essentials

You’ll also need to take care of any licenses that are required in your area, and you’ll want to consider liability insurance for your business and an umbrella policy for yourself too — especially if you have a decent amount of assets.

Keep Good Records

Finally, be sure to keep good records for your business.  Your business and personal financial lives should be completely separate. Don’t pay for groceries from the business account, and don’t buy a new computer for your business from your personal account.  Keeping things separate makes tax time easier, and is a legal requirement for many forms of business.

Jackie Beck is an entrepreneur who started her first “business” in the 2nd grade. Jackie writes about learning to love your financial life and reaching goals at MoneyCrush. Check out her site at www.moneycrush.com or subscribe in a reader.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Success Factor One: Begin with the end in mind.

As Stephen Covey has written, you need to really understand what it is that you’re trying to do. Otherwise, it’s going to be very hard for you to obtain and maintain the focus that you need to be successful. You need to find a program or plan and stick to that program until you’re successful. In that process you need to have a clear vision of what success means and what it is that you’re trying to do. Know what you are building.

Success Factor Two: Avoid bright shiny objects.

One of the big problems that I had when I first started in internet marketing was the fact that I didn’t know exactly what I was doing or why I was doing it. (See number one above.) So, every time a new offer would come into my inbox I’d go check it out. For months and months I was bouncing around between this offer and that offer; this guru and that guru. That unfocused approach is a recipe for disaster for the part-time entrepreneur. It is absolutely critical as a part time internet business person with limited time resources available that you maintain focus and turn off those messages in your inbox.

Success Factor Three: Understand the lifestyle that you’re trying to design.

On the Internet Business Mastery Podcast and in the Internet Business Mastery Academy, Jay and Sterling spend a lot of time talking about lifestyle design. Lifestyle design is even more critical for a part time internet business person because it means that you must build a business that’s sustainable part time. If you end up building a business that requires a lot of manual labor activity, customer service or consulting, you’ll quickly outstrip your ability to handle that business.

Of course, you’ll want to modify this thinking in the event that you plan to leave your day job, but until you’re able to do that you need to make that the lifestyle you’re designing for your business is compatible with a part-time business plan.

We will continue with Part 2 next week!

My name is Mark Mason from MasonWorld.com and I hope you have a fantastic day.

Mark Mason is a successful part time internet entrepreneur who helps people learn how to make money online with his Late Night Internet Marketing Podcast and Blog at MasonWorld.com.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

It happens. In fact, I find it happens regularly along the entrepreneur’s journey.

It’s one of those moments when you realize that you’re not going to rise to the next level without a leap of faith.

It happened when I realized that the 9-to-5 was taking up so much time and energy that my business aspirations were severely limited.
The leap of faith was quitting my job.

It happened when I realized that my podcast consulting gigs were keeping me from building a business that was not based on trading dollars for hours.

The leap of faith was letting my clients go.

It happened when we launched the Academy and I realized that 20 hours a week was not enough to make it a successful resource and dependable stream of income.

The leap of faith was putting my other businesses on hold to concentrate on the Academy full-time.

And now it’s happening again. Internet Business Mastery has reach yest another point where we won’t grow anymore if we stay with the current mode of operations.

Last week we had an annual strategy meeting in Salt Lake City. We set goals and planned what needed to happen to reach them.

We saw great growth in 2009. In 2010 we want to double it. It’s clear that will require more resources, specifically a larger team.

We’ve done a lot in four years with just two guys, a virtual assistant and a handful of freelancers. But the time has come to invest in more talent.

So we looked over the books, chose to make some personal sacrifices and set money aside to hire more people — an article writer, a programmer,  an InfusionSoft consultant, a marketing manager and a sales manager.

Our team is rapidly expanding and we’re fortunate to work with some very talented people.

It’s a bit scary to give things up and make new investments, but based on the past we know that…

Every time you take that leap of faith, the ceiling shatters and you rise to the next level.

What was a time when you hit a ceiling (or one that you are facing now)? How did you break through it?

Share your comments below.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

There’s far too much pessimism in the world right now.

We recognize that a lot of people are struggling in a variety of ways, but guess what?

There’s also a lot of things in this world that are friggin’ awesome
right now!

We have a lot to be grateful for. It’s important not to forget that.

Times can get tough. Now and again we might lose some of the comforts that we’ve grown accustomed to, but we must not lose site of all that is good around us.

The news feeds us fear, because that’s what sells. They know it will keep us glued to the TV.

Here’s a tip…turn the news off!

Stop watching it. Find other ways to keep up on current events if you must.

Choose carefully who you spend your time with. Associate with people that will build you up.

Guard your mind from sources that would tear you down.

They don’t have your best interests in mind.

One of our platinum students recently posted a great blog post video clip from the Conan O’Brien show (I heart Conan).

Go here and give it a watch. It’s only four minutes long. It’s a Friday. Treat yourself to a laugh. Enjoy it.

This blog post and video inspired our latest episode of the podcast.

Listen to it and count how many times we say the word ‘awesome.’ One listener proposed you could even make a drinking game out of it if you wanted.On a final note, we’re incredibly grateful for you and the all the others in the Internet Business Mastery community that follow our content.

It brings us a lot of fulfillment to discuss with you topics that we’re extremely passionate about because of the power they have to change lives — not only your own, but also the lives of others around you.

Have a great weekend!

- Sterling and Jay

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Imagine if you got in the car to go on a road trip and your friends/family asked you where you were headed and you just shrugged your shoulders and said, “I dunno!” How do you think that would fly?

It’s no different when it comes to driving towards ultimate success.

Right here, right now we’re going to take a giant step towards your ultimate success goal. It will only take you about five minutes. And while we’re at it you’ll have a chance to win a 30-minute phone consultation with me and Sterling.

You with me?

Awesome! Here we go.

The Automatic Success Mechanism

We’re going to tap into the success mechanism that resides inside of you. Every person on this earth has one. Once it knows where to go, it produces results. In fact, it will go to work for you day after day, EVEN while you sleep.

Let’s go back to the road trip analogy. Have you ever been driving a long distance and suddenly miles and miles have gone by without your conscious mind even realizing it? Next thing you know you arrive at the destination, but barely remember driving there.

You simply hand the task of driving over to your subconscious and it does the rest. It automatically sends signals to your hands and feet as they operate the steering wheel and pedals. You can use the exact same principle for arriving at destinations of success in life.

Massive Results Now

Here’s the really cool thing. You want results now. You have very limited time to make it happen. I know how it is.

There’s no way you can reach the all success  you desire through conscious thought and exertion alone. No amount of thinking really hard will produce all the ideas, motivation, and creativity you need for massive results.

Why do you think you often get your best ideas while showering, driving or washing dishes? In that moment your mind is free of distractions. All conscious thought is pre-occupied by a menial task that you you do all the time.

This is the prime moment for your automatic success mechanism to lob a brilliant idea at your conscious mind — just when you need it. It’s that spark of inspiration, the kick in the pants, the  needed to zoom past the next milestone on the way to your destination.

I’m telling you, this is the source of the majority of my money-producing ideas. It’s why I used to write my best music while commuting to work when I didn’t even have a guitar in my hand.

It’s how I can wake up in the morning and have content literally pour out of my fingers. It all comes from the automatic success mechanism.

The automatic success mechanism is like your ultimate performance car with cruise control, comfortable seats and a purring engine. Just set it in motion and you’ll arrive at your destination in no time. So let’s get in the car, rev up the engine and shift into overdrive!

Fueling Your Success

The success mechanism drives best with two things in the tank: imagery and feelings.

When you fuel your mind with specific images and feelings about your destination, the success mechanism will kick into high gear.

There are three simple questions that will get you on the road fast. Here is what you need to do for each question.

1. Read the question
2. Close your eyes and picture yourself  AS IF you’re already at your destination. Let the answer come to you.
3. When an answer appears, immediately write it down. Be as specific and descriptive as you can.
4. Close your eyes and repeat to see if other answers come to mind.
5. Move on to the next question.

3 Simple Questions

OK. Ready? Here are the three questions.

1. What’s the most important goal that you want to achieve with your internet business?
2. How will you KNOW when you have achieved that goal?
3. How will you FEEL when you have achieved the goal?

Now make the answer real. Solidify it by sharing with your peers. Enter your answers into the comments below. Take five minutes and do it right now. I’ve kicked things off with my own answers.

Win a 30-Minute Consultation with Sterling and Jay

We will pick the two best entries (so spend a bit of time really thinking this through) to win a 30-minute phone consultation with me and Sterling. We’ll help you directly with whatever you want — choosing your niche, planning your product, marketing your site, etc. The deadline to comment below and enter is Friday, July 31st at 11:59 PM Pacific Time.

Remember not to let your success tank run dry. Repeat this exercise every day for the next week. Then use it repeatedly as you set new goals. Let your automatic success mechanism drive you to the ultimate success that you deserve.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Well, we have a winner! In fact we have two. But before I reveal the answer and who won, let’s review the hints about the investment.

• It was something  I had been working on putting together for a few months
• It came together with a phone call and a wire transfer
• I agreed to it on the spot
• I had to prepare for something in mid-July
• It would benefit my customers/community

And the Winner Is…

I decided to declare two winners. The first two to hit the answer dead on were @danielwatrous and @NCoastGardening. Congrats! Now, drum roll please. The answer is…

You got it! A few others also guessed right including @masonworld, @larajf, @ToddSkaggs and @KickTheWebGeek. Well done!

A Priceless Opportunity

Today I’m off to Los Angeles to meet with Jeff Walker and his team. In addition, fifty of his top hand-selected students will be there to mastermind with me. For three days we’ll plan the launch of my upcoming New Media Mastermind membership site.

Jeff’s time doesn’t come cheap. I had to pay five figures to solidify the opportunity. But even my most conservative calculations show that the ROI will be significant and the impact long-lasting. I didn’t hesitate at the cost for a moment.

Success Slingshot

Something that has consistently shot me forward as an entrepreneur (and before that as a musician) is working with mentors. Whenever I’ve wanted to jump to the next level, I’ve called ahead to someone that’s already there and asked them for directions.

My first business mentor helped me escape the 9-to-5. The next mentor introduced me to the world of information marketing allowing me to ditch a business that was quickly turning into another job.

The following mentor taught me how to use my marketing skills on the Internet allowing my wife and I to move our business and life to New York City and other cities such as Buenos Aires.

It was a trusted mentor that taught Sterling and I the power of membership sites directly leading to the six-figure revenue now generated by Internet Business Mastery.

Each mentor has impacted my life and business significantly. So when set my goals for this year, I knew right away it was time to work with another mentor. Jeff Walker was the guy I needed.

Million Dollar Launches

Jeff Walker is a highly sought after marketing consultant and creator of the Product Launch Formula.

He was involved in the first ever one million dollar launch for an online information product when John Reese pulled a million dollars in sales in a day. Since then, he ‘s worked with numerous high profile clients including Dan Kennedy, Frank Kern and StomperNet (whose launch produced 3+ million dollars).

I’m extremely excited for the opportunity to work with Jeff since he only works directly with one or two clients a year. He’s very selective about what he spends his time on.

So how did I make it happen? How did I get Jeff Walker to call and offer to work with me? Well, that’s a question that I’ll answer in a special case study video. To get this video you have to be on the Ultimate Success Case Study Alert List. I’ll post it at the end of the week.

Trickle Down Effect

The great news for you is that this experience will lead to great content for this blog and the Academy. Insights gathered from my consultation with Jeff and his team will trickle down to benefit you as well.

Creative Guesses

Thanks to those that participated in the guessing game. It was a lot of fun to see all the ideas come in. Some people got really creative. Other guesses included:

• Buying a Pinkberry franchise
• Purchasing ad space on the moon
• Being offered a cable TV show
• Buying podcast startup, Mevio
• Investing in a brand new podcasting studio
• Signing up for golf lessons
• Having a baby

What do you want to know?

To help deliver maximum value to you, tell me what you’d like to hear about in my case study.

• What questions do you have about finding and working with mentors?
• What would you like to know about how getting Jeff Walker to work with me?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Goals are a waste of time.

You have probably heard of many different ways to set your goals.  Goals should be stated in the positive and given a date that you want to fulfill them.  Maybe, if you heard of some ‘advanced’ goal setting strategies, you might have heard that you should write down the “WHY” you want the goal so that you can add some emotion to them.

Those things are a complete waste time… on their own.

Honestly, there is something very profound that you HAVE to know before you can even  begin working on the strategy of writing a goal.

You have to know your DEFINITE MAJOR PURPOSE.

Your Definite Major Purpose (DMP) represents the central mission of your life right now.  The DMP is the guiding reason for doing everything you do.

Napoleon Hill, author of Think & Grow Rich, says it is the thing that you desire most in life.

I’d say that it is the thing that you most desire to do WITH your life.

Once you have your DMP all the decision you make including what goal to set, all the way down to what you will do every single moment of every day, will be VERY easy.

If you align your goals to your DMP you will have an infinite amount of energy and will to actually take ACTION on your goals.

I’ll talk about the specific steps to take to bring vibrant life to your goals in the next post, but now, let’s talk about how you can define your DMP.

Here are a list of questions to help you decide what you want your central mission in life to be:

What would I like to dedicate my life to?
What is the most important thing I would like to accomplish in your lifetime?
What fulfills me about all other things?
Why am I here?

Here is an example of MY DMP:

*************

FREEDOM

Freedom to create the exact lifestyle I choose
(financial freedom makes this possible)

Freedom to live anywhere I and my family choose

Freedom of making my own schedule
(I work as much or as little as I want)

Freedom to be and think what I truly want

FULFILLMENT

Constant growth and learning

Teaching others to find their DMP & ultimate fulfillment

Be a prolific creator of my thought creations

Have passionate and inspired friends

Create legacy

Have integrity in all aspects of life

INSPIRATION

Making a difference in the quality of life with everyone I come in contact with

Inspire others’ lives by living my life with purpose and total fulfillment.

RECOGNITION

To be world renowned as a thought leader

To have other thought leaders and celebrities benefit from my thought creations

*************

Having a DMP that detailed makes is very easy to decide if a goal is really something you want to do.  You can quickly see if your goals actually forward your purpose or are totally not aligned with it.

So, before even thinking of wasting time setting the same goals you make every year, try adding the foundation that will make taking action simple and easy by defining your DMP.

TAKE ACTION:

• Start now and create your Definite Major Purpose.

In the next blog post I will NOT teach you how to set goals, since there are BOATLOADS of other post doing just that, but I will talk about HOW to make them happen!

What do you think?

• Share your DMP.  It may help others with creating their purpose!

GOAL SETTING part 2

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

“How much will all this awesome information cost?”

Great question.

I wish we had the answer ready for you! ;-)

Obviously it’s something we’ve been working on during this whole launch process.

The value of the information we’re adding to the Academy is massive.

For example, we will be including the ENTIRE content of the IBM Coaching course that sold out during our last two releases at $2,495 a pop.

Plus… we’ll be including two additional COMPLETE courses inside the Academy…

…And a complete Success System that gives easy to follow step-by-step instructions to set up a new business and get it generating good revenue for you.

…And a really cool “Multimedia Rolodex” where you’ll not only get full access to all of the services and vendors we use to help us manage our various businesses, but we’ll also SHOW you how to maximize each of these resources with videos and other helpful materials.

…And our Executive Book Reviews with our audio discussions, our mindmaps of the book’s most important elements, online book club for you to add your own reviews, and interviews with the author whenever possible

…And FULL, private interviews with top Internet marketers that may never show up in our podcast.

…And a members only MASTERMIND community to be the ultimate worldwide mastermind group and enhance your learning with what we think will be one of the top business communities anywhere on the Internet.

Yes, that’s a lot of top-notch material you’ll have complete access to.

If we packaged all of it up as separate courses and resources, it would probably be in the $8k – $10k range.

But remember, the whole idea with the Academy is to help as many smart businesspeople as possible.

So you know there’s no way we can ethically charge anywhere near that.

Again, we don’t have the exact launch amount yet.

But we think you’ll LOVE what we come up with.

If you want to get the inside scoop, please go to:
InternetBusinessMasteryAcademy.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery we talk about The 3 Pillars of Designing Your Ultimate Internet Lifestyle, Part 1. Plus we have a quick tip about the #1 source of high value business networking and partnerships.

CLICK HERE to find out how you can get immediate access to The 3 Pillars of Designing Your Ultimate Internet Lifestyle, Part 2

Items mentioned in this episode:

• June’s book of the month club contest
• Internet Business Mastery Academy – Coming July 16, make sure to get on the early notification email list to receive special discounts and sneak peaks of content within the Academy!

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery we talk about the #1 asset that you can acquire for your business. Plus we have a quick tip about a great resource for finding out what other people want to learn about so you can pick an in-demand niche.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• www.InternetBusinessMastery.com/getattention – Check out Jay’s Teleseminar!
• www.InternetBusinessMastery.com/book – Check out this months BOOK Contest
• www.InternetBusinessMastery.com/itunes – Takes you to iTunes, then click, “Write a Review” under the Podcast Description area. Leave a comment as part of this months contest.
• Billy Sticker – Winner of last months BOOK Contest!
• 43things.com
• Gravatar.com – add your image to the Internet Business Mastery comments

Attention Diagram:

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

This post begins a series of posts that goes to the basis of everything I do as a podcaster and business owner. I guarantee the concepts I’m going to outline will help you produce better content, connect more effectively with your market, make more money and have more fun!

Let’s talk about something that too many business owners either have too much of, have to little of or are controlled by when they don’t have any of it at all…

Purpose

I’m going to start with a story to give this word more context. It’s a personal story which means talking more about me than usual. I prefer like to focus on what things mean for YOU so that YOU can accomplish YOUR objectives. I share this story in the spirit of helping you achieve your objectives as a business owner and online content creator (OCC).

The Purpose Society Prescribed

Several years ago I finished my studies in Electrical Engineering-a very practical and marketable degree. I even landed one of the highest paying jobs of my graduating class and was employed by a company that made audio gear for guitarists. This was a dream job for a wannabe rock star like me.

I‘d fulfilled one of the big milestones of life-get a good degree and start a solid career. I was fulfilling the purpose that society had prescribed for me. Things were right on track…or so it seemed.

I soon started feeling like something was missing. It was a sinking feeling. “Is this it? Is this the rest of my life?” Even though I had a steady job and steady pay in an industry that many would die to work in, it just didn’t fulfill me.

Stuck in the Daily Grind

After a short while I began to dread waking up and going to work. My passion and creativity were being snuffed out. I was trapped in a daily grind…the rat race! I could not remain like that for the rest of my life. I knew I had to figure something else out.

I spent the next couple years searching for options. I considered being a full-time musician, a university professor and even at one point a National Parks ranger (it’s true). But none of these would provide a lifestyle I wanted.

Maybe an MBA would give me more options. I took the GMAT. Wait! That just puts back into the rat race with more debt. But I loved being in school.

The Fulfillment Factors

I thought back to my time in college (some of the best years of my life) and considered what it was that had made that lifestyle so enjoyable.

1. Variety – New opportunities were varied and abundant at university
2. Control/Freedom – The power of choice over my time (i.e. what classes I took and whether or not I went to class).
3. Constant Learning – No shortage of knowledge to absorb. Everyone was there for that purpose (well, except for maybe that one roommate with the samurai swords).
4. Teaching – During my studies I was the opportunity to teach a class on digital audio and electronic music. I had a knack for teaching and found this incredibly fulfilling.

These were the things that fulfilled me most. I call them my “fulfillment factors” (FFs).

SIDEBAR: I want to take just a moment to comment on relationships and family as a fulfillment factor. Relationships are of utmost importance in life. Everything I do is filtered by considering what impact it would have on the relationships I value most whether with family, friends, colleagues, clients or I’d even say…my blog/podcast audience.

Escape From the Rate Race

I had to get these fulfillment factors back into my life. Three years after starting my career (for which I had studied five years) I quit my job. I’ve never looked back. In fact, I’m now self-proclaimed chronically unemployable.

My path led from being a real estate investor, to a marketing coach and finally to internet entrepreneur. I discovered that you could run a very profitable businesses online by publishing valuable information for niche target markets (a.k.a. information marketing).

This excited me because it allowed me to:

1. Constantly learn new things in a fast-paced industry and a variety of topics.
2. Teach others
3. Enjoy freedom to pursue my own ideas and live wherever I wanted in the world.
4. Control my own time

It had been a long few years, but I had learned some valuable lessons.

1. You deserve to do what fulfills you most in life.
2. It’s important to clearly identify your fulfillment factors.
3. There are opportunities out there that will provide these factors. It may take some time, but pursue them with tenacity and they will be yours.

FFs Are Not EnuFF

Fulfillment factors serve as a yard stick to measure the decisions I make and opportunities I pursue. However, on their own they only get you so far.

The next step is to use these factors to define a specific purpose. That’s the topic of the next post.

What are your fulfillment factors? How have you (or are you) pursuing them? Does podcasting contribute to finding your fulfillment factors?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery we ask the question, What is the Tipping Point Between Thinking & Learning About Internet Business and Actual Success in Internet Business? Then we discuss Technical Skills vs. Passion/Intuition/Confidence & finding your DMP. In the Internet Business Quick Tip we talk about how to use site maps to increase search engine exposure and the usability of your site.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Google Site Map Plug-in
• INFO on Google Site Maps
• Site Map Generator
• Coming Soon, our membership site! InternetBusinessMasteryAcademy.com

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery we ask the question, What does money mean to you? Then we discuss many money beliefs and how to overcome any beliefs that may be holding you back. We based many of the items discussed in this show on the following survey:

MONEY

In the Internet Business Quick Tip we talk about how to get the most out of attending internet business conferences and events.

Question this episode: How has your belief in money helped or hindered your success?

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Dan Kennedy’s Wealth Attraction Book – 5 Stars!

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

People spend a lot of time thinking about money. In fact, we may think about money more than we think about sex. Your beliefs about money significantly impact your life and business. Whether you’re conscious of these beliefs or not, they conduct your behavior on a daily basis. Do you have money beliefs holding you back?

As I look back over the last several years and my progress as an entrepreneur, most of the critical mindset shifts I’ve gone through relate to money in one way or another. Later this month we’re dedicating an episode of the Internet Business Mastery podcast to discussing the meaning of money. But first we want to know what money means to you?

In the poll below you will see a list of belief statements about money. Please take a few minutes to place a check next to each of the statements that you believe to be true.

Also, let us know in the comments below about your relationship with money and how it has affected your progress as an internet entrepreneur. If there are beliefs that you have that are not listed here, please share them in the comments as well. You can post anonymously if you prefer.

Your input will help us address this subject and hopefully share some insights that will improve your relationship with and respect for money.

[poll=2]

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

When these people don’t instantly get rich because of a $37 ebook, then they bring out the big guns. They start blaming like there is no tomorrow.

“The info was crap”

“It’s too hard”

“It doesn’t work”

The funny thing is, when asked, most people didn’t even read the whole thing, if any at all!

Come on!

I believe they just think that buying it and putting it on their hard drive is a magic pill. Maybe some of them even print out the ebook, roll it up, and wave it around like Harry Potter trying to cast a spell of success on themselves.

I know when something I bought hadn’t worked for me, I can look back now and see what I DID to make it fail. Either I didn’t totally read the product or I didn’t actually do what it said or I quit halfway through or any other list of things I was responsible for.

It takes time and effort. Jay and I have bought hundreds of ebooks, CDs, DVD, and misc. info products about doing business on the internet.

In our mastermind groups we constantly trade info. We tell each other about latest book, course, audio or DVD that had an impact on our knowledge.

It took us YEARS of study and taking action to make it all work. Had we thought there would be a magic bullet or a real million dollar ebook we would have been disappointed very quickly, quit the business, said it was all a fraud, and resigned ourselves live a miserable life working for the Man.

Okay, so maybe I ‘hoped’ some of them would make me an overnight success story, but I realized that the promise of ‘get rich quick’ were for people who didn’t really want long lasting success, they just wanted to win the lottery…

Please, for your own sake, don’t fall into the trap of blaming others for your lack of knowledge, success, wealth, etc. Once you take responsibility for your own learning and realize it is going to be a journey and not a destination. Only then can the real ‘magic’ happen.

Come on, be honest, have you ever bought a course thinking, “This is the one, this is the one that will make me millions”, only to have it spend it’s time residing under the bed, unopened? Then, think to yourself, “Hey, that course didn’t work at all!”?

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

On this episode of Internet Business Mastery:

• The Secret Mindset Needed to Get Started as an Internet Business Mastery
• The Best Place to Host Your Own WordPress Blog

This episode was inspired by an email we received from an Internet Business Mastery listener who wanted to know more about how we got into creating internet businesses. We have a discussion about what we needed to learn before getting started, how long it took us to learn it and some of the key mindset changes that got us to where we are now.

Links to things mentioned in this episode:

Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet (the course that got Sterling started)

Rich Dad, Poor Dad

Our recommended hosting for a WordPress blog with a one-click blog installation

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Jason discusses:

• Why he chose podcasting as his latest internet marketing niche
• Why writing a book has been great for his internet business despite the low profit margins that come from book sales relative to other information products
• Whether other infopreneurs should consider writing a book

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode we go over six tips to help you create a business that is a system so that you control the business and it doesn’t control you. We also talk more about how you must work on your business and not in your business if you want to be a true entrepreneur and acheive financial freedom. We also introduce a new segment called the Internet business quick tip.

Also…

Sterling talks about his commitment to constant and neverending improvement in both life and internet business. Jay talks about taking advantage of industry trade shows and presents an idea about using an advisory board to help you progress in your internet based business.

The internet business quick tip reveals a great tool for conducting keyword research in your internet marketing.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

The E-Myth

The New PsychoCybernetics

Think and Grow Rich

Nichebot

Promoting Your Podcast (Jay’s Book)

Podcamp

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode we debunk the entrepreneurial myth that you are an entrepreneur if you just quit your job and work for yourself. We explain why most people who call themselves entrepreneurs are not really entrepreneurs. Then we discuss how to avoid falling into this trap by identifying the source of your income streams are and balancing the major roles that you play as a business owner.

Here are the two books we mention in this episode:

E-Myth by Michael Gerber

Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant

Jay also talks about his book that was just released and is now available in major bookstores. Go here for more info.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode we discuss part two of ten traits that successful internet entrepreneurs all have.

You’ll discover:

• How an entrepreneur compensates for his/her weaknesses
• What every entrepreneur must do throughout their life to continue succeeding
• What you can learn from McDonalds that you should apply to each of your businesses
• How a successful entrepreneur handles their wealth

Make your voice heard. Stand up for net neutrality:

Ebay’s Campaign (if you have an ebay ID)

Save the Internet

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode we discuss ten traits that successful internet entrepreneurs all have.

You will discover:

• The critical decision you must make before undertaking a new business venture
• What you need to know about yourself before going into business on your own
• How to overcome “failure” and make it work for you
• Where to get your best ideas for marketing and businesses
• How to be ready for adversity before it arrives

We were recently interviewed by Alan Stewart on The Marketer’s Podcast

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

REMEMBER: Please take our Internet Business Mastery POLL and get a
FREE video tutorial on how to use the Mind Map!!

Common Fears of Going into Business on Your Own and How We Overcame Them

• Sterling and Jay’s Weekly Business Update

• Sterling talks about his biggest profit week ever as well as the attempted buyout of his competition.
• Recommended Reading:
  • NLP 1
  • NLP 2
  • Psycho-Cybernetics
  • Think And Grow Rich

• Special Thanks to:
  • Jason at Suprisehighway.com for adding us to his 5 must listen podcasts for entrepreneurs list!
• Welcome to our ‘youngest’ listener Charlie from Toronto coming in at 17 years of age!
• Thank you for all the wonderful praise, comments and suggestions!
• Take our LISTENERS POLL

Tags: internet marketing, online business, internet business, ebay tips, entrepreneur, e-myth, entrepreneurship, eBay secrets, internet based home business, online auction, ebay, make money, sterling and jay, internet business mastery, marketing online, small business, home based business

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery, we talk about how to set yourself up for success by designing your business before you start so that it will provide the lifestyle that you choose for yourself.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Freemind: Free software for mind mapping your business plan
• James Maduk: Creates numerous info products by just “recording everything he does” in his business

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

This is the premier episode of Internet Business Mastery. In this episode we talk about how we went from being 9-to-5 salary slaves to independent entrepreneurs living the lifestyle of our choosing. In this episode you’ll also find:

• The most influential books that helped us leave the employee mentality behind
• What we do now to make a living online
• 9 things that every internet business entrepreneur needs when starting out

Items mentioned in this episode:

• Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
• Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.