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Sterling: This is Internet Business Mastery episode 85.

In a world where bosses control your life, and thoughts of escape fill your mind, where inspiration seems dead and cynicism rules the masses. You have the desire to break free; you feel the need to take control. Now there exists a place where the secrets of freedom and wealth are given to those who believe. Internet Business Mastery.com – free your mind!

Sterling: Hello, and welcome to Internet Business Mastery online at Internet Business Mastery.com, I’m Sterling….

Jay: And I’m Jay….

Sterling: And we’re here to help you escape the ‘9 to 5’ and live the lifestyle of your dreams by turning your life’s passion into a profitable internet business even if you’re just getting started today. On this episode of Internet Business Mastery, we’re going to talk about how to find a business mentor, and then in the Quick Tip we’re going to give one of our favorite sources for networking, masterminds, and mentors.

And we’d like to remind you that if you’d like to get a jumpstart on creating your own profitable internet business using our proven system, you can claim your risk-free trial membership to the Internet Business Mastery Academy by going to freeaudiogift.com. So Jay, what’s been going on?

Jay: Um, well actually I want to hear what’s been going on with you because you hinted at some productivity stuff that you’ve been working on that sounds really interesting. So I was hoping you’d maybe tell us a little bit about that.

Sterling: Well really it’s actually kind of going back to something in general that we did a long time ago when we were kind of working full time on Internet Business Mastery, and partly one of the things I was going to mention was just that to everybody we have been working basically 20 hour weeks.

We had through lifestyle design wanted to do that and see what that was like, and we’ve actually been doing it what, about six or seven months?

Jay: At least, yeah.

Sterling: Something like that, and what we’ve actually decided with everything that we want to do and looking at what we were actually getting done because twenty hours sounds awesome to only work twenty hours. And really there was a base level of what we could get done for sure, and we were able to grow our business.
But it wasn’t to the level that we wanted, so we decided to go back up to forty hours at least for a couple of months because we’ve got all these projects and plans, and things that we want to get done. So we decided to jump back up to forty hours, but of course that means there’s definitely a big shift in the productivity, and wanting to maintain the same high level of productivity that we were doing with twenty hours, but now with forty we want to make sure…yesterday we were actually even talking about making sure that we don’t start spreading time out in a less efficient way.

Like when you have twenty hours you have to fit everything in, so you had to be super-super efficient to make sure it happens. But sometimes if you’ve got more time, something that you would have scheduled for an hour suddenly you go, ‘oh maybe it will take me two hours.’ And you start filling in that time, and so one of the things I was doing was just basically going through different productivity things that I have and tightening things up again.

When you work for yourself the interesting thing is obviously it’s really easy to think oh, well I think I’ll go do this instead of work. So one of the things that was interesting getting back to is an 8-hour day. Eight hours is a long day, I can’t even believe it!

And for me, working probably more than two or three hours at a time without a little break, now after all these years of not doing it – I actually have to take breaks. So my eight hour day actually becomes much longer because I take an hour break in between and I might run to the store or do some of the things in the afternoon, or maybe work out or something, and so my day ends up spreading out.

But that’s what works for me, so the whole thing was getting back to what works for me? And one of the other things I realized that for me, there are some days that I just work six hours and then on the weekend I work a couple extra hours to make up for that. And I don’t mind doing that, I actually love it and one of the key points to this is just another one of those aspects of internet business is that you can make your schedule be what you want even if you’re working forty hours.

It doesn’t have to be like a normal job where you just disappear into the work hole for eight straight hours, can’t do anything else. I mean I’m still in a position where obviously if I want to even see a movie in the afternoon with some friends, or if I want to go to my daughter’s orchestra performance, at any given time I can do that kind of stuff and just shift things around.

But again, the key is really being focused on planning that schedule ahead of time and still being flexible, but finding what actually works for you. You don’t have to do something very traditional if you don’t want to, find what works for you. And again, for me working two or three hours and then a nice little break is awesome. And I’m really excited to get back to the forty hours.

Jay: Yeah, after working twenty hours for a long time, I was refining my time budget for 2010 and I was like wow, forty hours! It just seems like so much now, like there’s so much I can do in the week! So it will be exciting to see what comes out of that. So I didn’t know your daughter was in orchestra, what does she play?

Sterling: One plays the violin and the other plays the cello.

Jay: Oh very cool, I have a friend who’s a cellist who makes some very cool music. It’s an awesome instrument; I had no idea. That’s cool.

Sterling: Yeah they’ve been doing it for years, both of them. They’re actually getting to the point where the music, you can stomach it. The first couple of years it’s like ugh, you cringe most of the time. And now it’s like oh wow, it actually sounds like what it’s supposed to, that’s awesome!

Jay: Yeah, stringed instruments can be pretty…well a lot of instruments can be pretty rugged in that first year or two.

Sterling: Yeah, when you’re still eight or nine and it’s brand new. But yeah, it’s all now getting very pleasant and my youngest daughter also sings in the choir so they have a little choir at their school, and so they have little performances all the time. But yeah, it’s just awesome to be able to go to those things and just shift my schedule around as needed.

But also, it’s very, very important to be very strict with your schedule in terms of making sure to schedule out ahead of time because with internet business man, I know within our platinum group sometimes people are saying, “Wow, how do you like stay motivated and keep working?” And I was like, “Well, you make the decision I think ahead of time, schedule that stuff out and say to yourself, ‘Me staying to this schedule is what’s leading to the dreams, and the goals, and the stuff I’ve written ahead of time as well.’” So you’re basically designing your future by staying to that schedule.

Jay: Absolutely, well we had a question come in about finding a mentor, so let’s jump into the featured segment about that.

And now, the featured segment…

Jay: Alright, well a question came in from Marin Kate on Twitter, she’s @MarinKate, she was asking me on Twitter a little while ago…she was referring to our episode that we did recently about how to have the best year ever in 2010. And she asked, here’s what she said on Twitter, “Just listened to the new podcast, how do you suggest finding mentors? I know that as the next step that I need.”

So I thought well, let’s do an episode on that, it’s a great question – I’m sure one that a lot of people have. So we jotted down some notes and suggestions based on our own experience of how you can go out and find a business mentor for yourself. And I mean the first thing to say and it probably goes without saying is you need to find someone who has already done what you want to do.

And I guess that doesn’t go without saying because sometimes I think people fail to think about that. Obviously the whole idea of having a mentor is to have somebody give you directions to arrive where they already have, and based on their experience, and wisdom, expertise, and things they can shortcut the process for you to help you maybe skip a few pitfalls and things like that.

So where do you start looking for a mentor? Once you know kind of what you want to accomplish and you kind of know what kind of qualities or accomplishments you want in the mentor, the skills you want a mentor to have, where can you start looking? And some of the places we’ve looked for mentors before obviously going to conferences and seminars within your industry and your niche is a great place and person to see who’s there and who knows what they’re talking about.

Maybe who some of the speakers are, get to know some people, mix and mingle and meet some people in person. If you don’t know if there’s any conferences or seminars, or there’s not one coming up soon then maybe a quicker way to do that and on a local level is to go and find Meetup groups, clubs, associations, things like that in your local area.

You can look at Meetup.com for instance, and one of my very first business mentors, and this was before I quit my job that I was kind of dabbling into real estate investing thing, I met him through the local real estate investors association which is basically like a club or what we’d call a Meetup these days. And the very first one I attended, he stood up and was talking about his experience and I was like wow, that would be awesome to learn from that guy.

And so I had that in the back of my mind and immediately starting looking for ways to connect with him, but we’ll talk a little bit more about that in a bit. Another one that I mention and I’ve never personally done this, however there’s some people that I am mentoring, or are in my coaching group that have also found other mentors this way, like business associations and things.

I know there’s Score which I can’t remember what that stands for, but it’s some kind of business association, and there’s lots of people, successful business people who have agreed to give their time. You can go and ask them questions, the caviat there is that while you might be able to find someone who is very experienced and intelligent when it comes to small business and things like that, it’s actually very hard to find people that are well versed in internet business and marketing paradigms that we work in and the kinds of business that we talk about and do here.

So just keep that in mind is that they may not have experience or know those kinds of things, but that doesn’t mean you might not be able to find some value there. And then of course you can just do an online search. With social media today just looking through forums, and looking for blogs, looking on Twitter for who’s popular and people talk a lot to on Twitter, looking on Facebook and places like that to identify some of these A-listers so to speak within your industry – people that you could learn from.

And really, I shouldn’t say A-lister because this is something we were talking last night with our platinum group about, about how a lot of industries are kind of like the Hollywood thing, split up into A-list, B-list, C-list, D-list so to speak. And there’s just kind of different levels of experience and notoriety and things like that.

And you don’t necessarily need to jump straight to the top and have a A-list mentor, if you’re just getting started for lack of better term you’re on the D-list, the bottom of the totem mole just getting going, even a C-lister could help you rise to the next notch so keep that in mind too. But an online search can help you find some of those people, so there’s a few ideas of where you can start looking for a potential mentor.

And so you want to start doing that and identify a handful of people that you think that would fit the bill well for you and then that’s when you want proceeding to figuring out how you might be able to connect with that person. And that brings us to our next point.

Sterling: Yeah the next point is to pay attention and be present. So part of this would be to follow them online if possible, and nowadays it’s getting to the point where I see ads in the newspaper and all over the place where they actually give their Twitter ID now in their ad.

So I mean getting connected to people through the internet now even if it’s obviously not internet business or that kind of thing, whatever you niche is, is much much easier. And then once you find them online, definitely pay attention to what they like and what they need.

And comment on their Tweets, I always hate saying ‘tweet.’ But on their Twitter posts, comment to what they say and it reminds me even you with the platinum group last night were talking about Jeff Walker and what happened to that. Go ahead and go with that.

Jay: Yeah, and I knew I wanted to mentor with Jeff Walker. Immediately I was paying attention to his Twitter stream, and I was taking courses from him and I through that got to know a little bit about what he was all about, but it was definitely helpful…these days people talk in their Twitter stream about what they like and what they’re excited about, what problems they’re running into.

And that is very valuable information, that’s where you can watch for opportunities to deliver value to people, but that’s how I found out he’s into mountain biking, or he was into playing and learning guitar. And this is all stuff that became valuable later when I had the opportunity later to chat with him, or when I wanted to send something to him to get his attention for instance.

So definitely use those resources, it may sound kind of stalker-ish and you definitely don’t want to cross that line, but there’s a lot of very valuable information by watching people’s social media streams that they put out there, so that’s one of the key ways to use these tools, but then the other way was like Sterling was saying was just to be present meaning start showing up in their comments and their Twitter stream so they start recognizing your name.

So when you do connect with them, they’re like, “Oh yeah, you’re that person who’s always commenting on my blog, you’re that person who’s always tweeting to me.” And we definitely have those people in Internet Business Mastery who interact with us a lot on Twitter, or who comment a lot, or who send us email and who participate on our Academy forums.

And those people definitely stick out in our minds and we’re going to be a lot more likely to open or pay attention to an email if we recognize their name, because we’re like oh yeah, that person is saying cool stuff on our site. So these are important things to be thinking about.

Sterling: Yeah and the other thing I would say about this is, definitely look for the opportunity to deliver value to your possible mentor, I know that people that help me through Twitter, and this happens quite often. I’ll ask a question, and a bunch of people will answer, and then there will even be times when…well and the example of that is just recently I even said, “What’s your favorite mattress? My mattress is about done,” and I had a whole bunch of people say the same mattress.

And I actually went out and bought the mattress that everybody said they loved, and even as much as that – like anytime somebody asks a question, answering them. And also, even finding times when they haven’t asked but deliver value as well. Like sometimes people will say to me, “Hey, have you seen this?” And it will relate to some sort of issue I had a week before, and it looked to me like they went out and tried to find a solution for me. I really loved to see that and definitely would love to do that with mentors that I would want.

I can’t believe I just realized that back when I was really searching hard for mentors several years back, well maybe three or four years back, Twitter didn’t exist! Facebook wasn’t like it is now; I couldn’t do all this then! I couldn’t find out if they liked bluegrass music or whatever you saw Jeff wanting. Like things like that didn’t exist and it’s just so awesome that we can see that.

And I definitely share likes and interests pretty lightly, but I do share that on Twitter and Facebook, so people with the keen eye can see that. And most people do so that’s part of paying attention and being present. And be sure to comment on their blog and comment and even re-tweet stuff on Twitter and Facebook that they’re talking about.

I noticed that all the time with people actually re-tweeting what I say or comment on what I say, it’s funny because I’ve noticed that maybe there’s a group of ten or fifteen people that comment on just about anything I say. And I get to know who those people are, and just consider that that’s how people that are using those mediums, they’re noticing the people that constantly comment and again, add value.

Jay: And case and point, let’s take this episode right here. I mentioned one of our listeners Marin Kate who’s also an Academy member, and when she joined the Academy she immediately started standing out because she started putting the stuff into action, she was posting on the forums, she was sharing stuff that she was up to.

She was on Twitter and very active, and this stuff just kept popping up on my radar, and so here she is, obviously when she asks a question on Twitter, I take notice of it. I’m like well hey, let’s do an episode about that. And we love to do that as much for any of our listeners, but definitely somebody that has been in our forums and has been delivering value to our forums is going to rise up and above and be that much more inclined to go well yeah, well cool – let’s see what we can do to maybe help out in that area.

Sterling: Well one of the other things that I was going to say that I do as well, if somebody really delivers value for me or comments in a way that I want to see what they’re up to, I actually on Tweetdeck add them into my follow group. Now the people that I’m actually following – it’s a small, small group because I don’t want too many that I can’t read everything that’s being said.
But then they become part of the people that I’m actually watching the follow. And again that would be very important, and I consider that anytime I’m trying to get in with somebody or add value to their lives and business.

Jay: Yeah, this deliver value first, it’s a big thing because I know we all get anxious to find that right mentor and it’s easy to…I mean I’ve been there when I was starting out…it’s easy to start assuming. It’s like oh, they’re just going to altruistically out of the goodness of their heart want to help me out.

And we’re so anxious to rise to that next level, get the help that we can, or maybe have somebody shortcut the process for us that we’re so focused on, ‘what’s in it for me, what’s in it for me, I need a mentor, this is what I need.’ ‘I need, I need,’ and we completely forget, it’s like look, you’ve got to show them what’s in it for them first.

And not that people who have risen to that level are selfish level, it’s just that we all have only so much time and energy, and for instance with all the business and marketing knowledge that we love to apply and help people with – I mean both Sterling and I, we have people that we help out for free with their projects that they’re doing or maybe some hobby or something that they’re promoting online.

And we’re happy to do that because these are our friends or our family, but I’ve probably got…in fact I was just chatting with somebody yesterday who wanted my help. I said, “You know, I’d love to help but I’ve got like five people I’m helping right now pro bono and these are all family and friends, and people here in the city and a non-profit here that I’m helping out, and it’s like my time is strapped.”

So then when somebody approaches me and says, “Hey, will you be my mentor?” Well we get those emails all the time, it’s like, “Hey I just want to pick your brain or take you to lunch,” but it’s like you know what? I just don’t have any time left for that. However, clearly if there’s really something in it for us, and there’s some kind of reciprocity then that’s when claiming some of that limited time and energy is going to become….it’s maybe going to get this mentor to pay a little bit of attention and maybe give you some of their time.

So continually watching for things that they need, and maybe if you see an article online or a clipping in a newspaper and you send it to them, or maybe you’re looking for a solution…they’re looking for a solution for something in their business and you end up finding that.

And one story that comes to mind is this mentor that I already mentioned a little while ago, the real estate investing mentor. I started taking his seminars, he was doing weekend seminars and I’d pay the money to go to those and I knew that because…going back to the being present thing. After the association meeting sometimes a group of people would go out to Denny’s and eat.

And so sometimes it was TGI Friday’s or whatever, we’d just go to different places and I’d always go. And at first I didn’t know that many people, I was just kind of there and I felt silly a little bit, but I just wanted to be there and be present. First of all so that they would see me and start recognizing my face but then just so I could listen to the person and maybe I would pick up a few tips and just get to know them a little bit because they’re talking and telling stories.

And I happened to know that he wanted to make information marketing and seminars a part of his business, he was doing really well in real estate but he knew that that would be a key supplementary income for him, another income stream that he wanted to develop. And that’s actually one of the first places I really started catching on to this information marketing stuff and I recently bought a seminar.

And it was a really good seminar with Ron Le Grand and Dan Kennedy and things like that, so it was sixteen tapes and a binder. And the next time I went to one of his seminars I made sure I showed up early and sure enough he was there early sitting at a desk preparing his notes, nobody was really there, a few people milling around.

And I showed up with that thing in hand and I said, “You know I thought you might be interested in listening to this, it’s all about putting on seminars and selling information products and I know with these seminars that’s what you’re trying to do,” and I knew that he was a Dan Kennedy fan because he’d mentioned that.

And he was thrilled, he’s like, “Wow! Thanks! That’s really cool, yeah I would love to watch this, thank you very much,” and that started a relationship. I delivered value to him and then later on again delivering value for free, I helped him out in his business. He was doing lots of short sales which required going around and talking to people in their homes and finding out which ones would be able to help to sell their house because they were in foreclosure.

And that’s a lot of grunt work that he didn’t have time to do himself and he wanted to grow his business, so I did that for him for free to learn from him. And that’s what eventually got me to the point feeling like I could quit my job because I had learned enough and had the right connections, and he had taught me the ropes of and helped me later through my first deal.

So delivering value first, showing them what’s in it for them is a huge deal, so being an assistant or an intern for free for somebody is another way to do that. And you’ve got to show that you really have the desire to learn some of the skills and the willingness to stick around for a while and invest in their business. And we’ve had people with Internet Business Mastery design websites for us, help us with marketing plans, do all kinds of things for free and we’ve definitely made sure to reciprocate.

And even to this day somebody who’s helped us with some of the stuff last night, they know that they have my ear on Skype now, and they’ve shot me a quick question and I was more than happy to answer that question for them because of all the value that he’s delivered to us over the last couple of years. So keep that in mind, deliver value first.

Sterling: Well I’ve got an example real quick to on being on the receiving side of this, when I decided that I was going to move here to San Diego, I put out a Tweet about the fact that I want to pick a city, one of the small cities here…or maybe one of the small towns, or beach towns, or whatever down here in San Diego and I didn’t know which one.

And I was thinking of coming down and looking around, and on Twitter at @socialrob now a really good friend of mind, at the time he was just somebody on Twitter responding and he kept giving me information on, “Oh, you should go here and you should try this,” and I finally said that I was coming down and was going to kind of drive around and learn about San Diego and he said, “Well, why don’t we team up and I will show you everywhere. I’ve grown up here, I know everything there is about San Diego.”

And he spent about ten hours driving me up the coast showing me every single little beach town, giving me every little detail about why you’d want to live here as opposed to here, and I could not believe! I mean it had nothing to do with internet business at the time, but then as we’re sitting there driving together and having lunch and dinner, chatting about everything, I find out he’s an SEO expert and that’s what he does.

And ever since then, we actually have several deals going now, all of this because he jumped in and said, “Hey, let me take a day out of my life to show you everything about San Diego.” He even helped me find out where I now live, or which areas I want, and we hang out all the time. All of this came because he just like completely like over delivered value for no particular reason at the time, just being a great guy, because he’s such a really nice guy.

Like obviously meeting somebody like that and seeing what they’re willing to do, obviously it makes you stand up and take notice. So think of that on your side if stuff like that you can certainly deliver any kind of value, it doesn’t even have to be specifically for business. He helped me find a place to live here in San Diego and find what city, or town I wanted to live in.

Jay: Yeah, something else you can do for people is if you are in a conference or something, or one of these Meetups and people go out to a bar afterwards is buy people drinks. They always like it if you buy them drinks, and one reason why that’s a nice one, it’s less pressure than…sometimes if you…well one we get a lot is, “Hey, can I take you to dinner or to lunch?”

And you have to be really careful with that one, because it’s become basically ‘can I take you to lunch’ has been seen as code for ‘can I get free consulting out of you?’ And so you definitely don’t want to come across as that…not to say that you can’t ever buy dinner for somebody and I’ve certainly done that to gain a relationship to mentors is to offer to take everyone at a conference – to take him and his staff to a really nice steak dinner and put down lots of money for that.

But drinks is very non-pressure and what do people do when they drink? They chat, and they loosen up, and they start sharing stories, and they start laughing, and you connect in new ways. And so that’s another one to keep in mind. Now there’s definitely a way to shortcut this whole process and that is to buy access. So what would you have to say about that Sterling?

Sterling: Well yeah, buying access certainly helps speed it along. One of the ways to do that is certainly mastermind groups, the big seven figure mastermind group that I got to take part in obviously I jumped to the head of the line with all this and got to spend several days with some of the biggest names in the world in this and be able to go to dinner and drinks afterwards and just hang out and chat about regular stuff outside of business and get to know each other.

And you know that’s basically buying access, because those mastermind groups are definitely high priced groups. And that’s kind of the high level of it, and another thing you can do is certainly buy their course, get very familiar with who they are and then climb up their access list. Most people have basically a way to progress to get more and more time with them, and it usually starts with buying their first product or course and then start getting emails about being able to buy higher access.

And sometimes that includes consulting, so you can buy consulting time with the person. And definitely if you’ve done all these things, and you get to the point where you’re consulting or you’re in a mastermind group and they start to get to know your name and also there you are, you’ve paid the money for their time, they’re going to remember all those things. I see it quite often that that’s specifically what happens.

And another way to buy access, I bought access by using my time in the same way that my friend @socialrob did by driving me around looking for places here in San Diego. And one of the way I did that was through a very small local mastermind group, I met a guy named Andrew and he actually did the video presentation and audio part of seminars like Yanik Silver and Dan Kennedy.

And after we became friends, he actually asked me if I wanted to go help at the seminar. Like he wouldn’t pay me, even though it was to live edit which I was an editor which I got paid really big money for, but basically I paid by my time. I went and didn’t charge anything just so I could have access to all the big speakers and stuff, because I figured with being with Andrew who was helping run these seminars I’d be able to possibly have lunch with these people, have dinner with these people, and try and get access to them which it actually worked out very, very well.

I did several of these seminars which was a lot of work. I mean we’re talking oh geez, maybe fourteen hour days at least in the work side of it, the behind the scenes things. But at lunch and in breaks, and times after we were done working, and we’re all just kind of relaxing, you get to know everybody. And they get to know you, and that was incredibly important and that’s actually what led for me to be able to be in a mastermind group and all these other things.

So just think of the different ways that you can buy access to these people and it doesn’t always have to be the front door like consulting. Like with me I was able to come in the back door and the side door with helping out at one of the seminars.

Jay: So there you go, there’s some tips for finding a mentor for yourself. Number one – find someone who has already done what you want to do.

Number two – go to some of those places to start looking at conferences, Meetup groups, business associations, online searching.

Number three – pay attention and be present so that person gets to recognize you and you kind of get to start to know their wants, and desires, and needs that you might be able to help out with.

Number four is to deliver value first, very very important. People skip that one all the time. People a lot of times will remember those first three but then they go straight to like, “Hey, will you mentor me? Hey, will you help me out? Hey, will you…” but they forget to deliver value first. So that changes the game altogether when you do that.

And number five if nothing else, putting up money and buying access to shortcut that process for you. So mentors definitely play a key part in the progress of an internet business. We’ve both had many different mentors along the way, and those kinds of relationships are really what end up amplifying greatly the success that you can have in your entrepreneurial pursuits.

So it’s worth spending the time, it’s not always easy, but it’s definitely worth spending the time and putting in the time to find the right mentor for you. And that’s something to think about as you start rising up in the ranks of your industry and niches is being a mentor for other people, but there’s only so much…the business model is – the more access people have to you, the more they’re going to pay for it.

And you’ll notice that in our own business model, I mean we love interacting with our community as much as we can. But we interact even more with the Academy because those people, they’ve filtered themselves out and kind of risen, ascended up kind of a level and paying money. We’re going to deliver them more value back as well, and obviously the highest access is the platinum group, the people who’ve paid to have our direct help.

They get to email us all the time, we just had a webinar with them last night where we’re bringing up their sites and their marketing stuff and giving our direct feedback on it. One of our members we spent 20-30 minutes with him about some of the stuff that he’s facing in his business right now and some of the different questions that he’s having to rise to the next level.

And we gave a lot of one-on-one hands on help with those issues and that’s because they’ve paid for the highest access. So keep that all in mind as you’re looking for mentors and also as you’re building your own business. The more people that get access to you, the more they should be paying in some form for that, just so the business is scalable and makes sense for you because your time and energy are limited as well.

Alrighty, so I guess let’s go ahead and move on to the announcements.

Sterling: Alright, we have a few breakthroughs this time from the Internet Business Mastery Academy. And the first one is from Brenda Richman, and here’s what she said. She said, “I’m so excited to be posting a breakthrough! This month I started using a strategy with LinkedIn to drive traffic to my blog. I went from 300 visitors last month to 1,000 this month. I’m super pumped to keep using this strategy, and I’m thinking of writing a special report on the technique.”

And that’s awesome, I mean there’s three times the amount of traffic in the first month of using that, that’s awesome. And her site is actually called Tekkbuzz.com, and she helps entrepreneurs pump up their profits with social media.

Jay: Yeah, I’m sure people would love to get their hands on that special report and know how she’s doing it.

Sterling: I would like to triple our traffic just by using LinkedIn, I’ll check it out.

Jay: The next one Mitchell Bailey, and he says, “For me, I think the biggest breakthrough I’ve had is using the definite major purpose system to design the life that I want. And I’m currently devouring the information in the courses to get my site up soon. The reason I think it’s a breakthrough is that I’ve had numerous ideas including iPhone development, about creating my own business but without clear guidance at all it seemed to be a basic number crunching of what is more profitable?
But now I have much better purpose and achieving those internet business goals, and I feel confident that I can ride out the potential failures.” And that’s a really key principle, I mean it’s true that if you don’t know what it is, and we talked about this in the last episode, just that simple question of ‘what do I really want?’

And if you don’t really ask that question or take the time to come up with a good answer to that question, you do just end up chasing money. And sadly in most cases, chasing the money just isn’t going to be sustainable. And like you said, it’s not going to be enough to ride out that potential failure. It’s knowing a much greater purpose or desire or fulfillment that you’re going for that is going to help you make the right decisions and carry through those tough times.

So I’m glad to hear the D&P system’s working well for you Mitchell, and we look forward to hearing about your continued progress.

Sterling: Alright and the last one for this episode is Rod Russell, who has a very simple and to the point and huge breakthrough, and here’s what he says. “My site is up! Not much more to say, just feels great!” And I’m glad to hear it because we’ve met in Salt Lake and he was definitely on the verge of getting things going, and finally got it up, awesome! And his site is SportBikeBliss.com.

Jay: It’s good to remember to rejoice in each of those small…and I don’t even want to say small because that’s a huge breakthrough.

Sterling: Yeah that’s a good one.

Jay: I mean yeah, eventually you get to the point in your business where throwing up a new site is like nothing, but early on, like that first site or that first opt in, or that first dollar – these things feel awesome and it’s important to remember to feel good about those moments, otherwise you’re constantly going, ‘oh I’m not there yet.’ And you’re just looking forward to, and it never feels like enough.

And I know I fall into that trap sometimes, so that’s how I thought it was really cool to see that even short and sweet breakthrough because really there’s that more profound message underneath that and that is to even rejoice in the seemingly small moments and triumphs within your business.

It’s time for the Internet Business Quick Tip…

Jay: This episode’s Quick Tip is actually something that we alluded to earlier in the episode, but it’s one of our favorite resources for networking masterminds, finding mentors for instance. And that is Meetup.com, and it was very interesting, I just went to New York City for a couple weeks for the holidays recently.

And in a very condensed amount of time, because we haven’t been there for a year and a half so we’re catching up with all these friends, we had all these dinner, and lunch, and breakfast appointments and going to all these people’s houses. As I was thinking through…I mean first of all you’re like wow, you don’t realize all the people you know until you see them all in a week or two time.

But just thinking back, how did we meet all these people? And it was so funny, a lot of them traced back to Meetup.com, like Meetups that we’d gone to for business or podcasting or other things. And then we’d meet someone there and then become friends, and then meet their friends.

And so Meetup.com is responsible for a lot of the people, business contacts, colleagues, and even just friends, really good friends that we have in New York City, but I know you’ve had actually a lot of experiences with Meetup.com in San Diego as well Sterling.

Sterling: Yeah, there’s a lot going on down here. All the different interests I have as well as internet business, I’d have to say that my core group of friends either came from social media or from Meetup right now, all the people that I hang out with the most and we’re really good friends now.

That’s how important Meetup is to me, I probably do at least three Meetups a month if not more, depending on the month if there’s a lot more. I’ve even got on different activism things through Meetup, I had done some time helping on the board starting this private school, I mean all this stuff through Meetup.com. It’s so awesome.

Jay: It’s so funny because every once in a while I’ll mention it and people are like, “What’s that?” It’s Meetup.com and I guess I take it for granted, doesn’t everybody know about Meetup.com? So if you haven’t checked it out or haven’t seen it really in that light, in life it’s valuable to have good relationships just for happiness in general but even for success in business, knowing the right people, knowing people that can become trusted friends, trusted colleagues, people that have similar values and desires and ambitions as you. These are important things, so consider using Meetup.com to fulfill that for yourself as well.

Sterling: Now if you’d like dozens of other resources such as this one, you can find them in the Internet Business Mastery Academy, along with video tutorials showing you exactly how we use them. To get a 30-day no risk trial membership to the Internet Business Mastery Academy, visit freeaudiogift.com. That’s it for this episode of Internet Business Mastery, until next time we wish you ultimate success in your internet business.

You’ve been listening to the iconoclasts of the 9 to 5, and the purveyors of freedom and fulfillment – Sterling and Jay. Sterling and Jay invite you to discover one of their most popular audio programs ever – The 3 Pillars of Designing Your Ultimate Internet Lifestyle. Visit FreeAudioGift.com now and sign up for the free weekly Internet Business Mastery email newsletter and you’ll get instant access to this life changing audio presentation pulled directly from the content of the acclaimed Internet Business Mastery Academy membership community. Go now to FreeAudioGift.com. Internet Business Mastery – free your mind!