It’s a subject tarnished with taboo and treachery.

Many believe money is tied to the assumption the wealthy must’ve cheated their way to riches by fooling, using, or hoodwinking people.

BUT… that’s the biggest load of codswallop ever pondered by a human brain.

Sadly, the reality is, without realising it, other people’s negative views of money unwittingly impact you from a tender young age. This causes you inner conflict, fills you with issues about earning what you’re truly worth, and prevents you from tapping into your ‘fair share’.

So, it's not your fault to harbour negative beliefs about money.

BUT… it IS your responsibility to change them if they don’t serve you and are keeping you poor.

How Our Mindset Affects Our Money Matters

What’s super sad is, we rarely stop to consider how dramatic an impact our money mindset has on our financial reality.

Which is exactly what we’d love to help you change, shift, eradicate, in this blog post.

This article may take a lunch break to read… BUT, consider avoiding a lifetime of wanting and needing, by reading it!

And it’ll save you your lifestyle!

Think about the pain and frustration associated with the lack of time and money. You likely associate a certain pain and frustration with the belief you’re missing out on the things in life you truly deserve.

For us, the penny finally dropped (pardon the pun lol) when we talked to a mentor about our money matters:

“Greg & Fiona, you need to understand over the years you’ve developed quite a few bugs in your brain software, and they’re strangling your income potential. You can either live with them and remain limited financially. Or you can install the code to correct them and have an unlimited earning potential – it’s up to you.”

In other words, our brains are like a computer and our minds are like the operating system that controls our money matters.

BUT… we were running several self-limiting programs, or bugs, created from having innocently absorbed other people’s views about money.

Please read that para again – it’ll help you understand your money matters too.

Our past conditioning about money strangled out income earning potential.

Maybe yours is too?

We’d inadvertently entrapped ourselves in the time for money game. The trap is, there’s next to no opportunity to scale or ramp up our incomes.

The Time for Money Game

What do we mean by that?

When you sell your services, or skills, or time for a salary or consultancy fee, there's only so many hours in a day you can work before burnout occurs. Which means you can’t ‘create’ more hours in the day to deliver more service/value to your employer. Which means there's a restrictive limit or cap on your income.

How did we come to realise that?

We stupidly thought that because we’d invested so much in our educations, we were entitled to have careers for life. Being employees and career professionals was all we knew. Reading Robert Kiyosaki’s book ‘Rich Dad Poor Dad’ alerted us to the time for money trap. We finally twigged that we had to build our own business to have an uncapped earning potential.

Make sense to you too?

Money Thermostat Exercise

If you’re unsure what we’re on about here, let’s try a little exercise:

What stock phrases and sayings can you think of which reference money in a negative light?

What do you remember HEARING when you were a kid – maybe from your parents, teachers, uncles, aunties, friends, friends’ parents?

Maybe, you heard some of these sayings?:

• Money is the root of all evil
• We can’t afford it (we heard this often enough)
• All money, no time to enjoy it
• Look after the pennies and the dollars/pounds will look after themselves
• Money doesn’t grow on trees; (it does – it’s paper!)
• Time is money (that’s the WORST myth holding many in jobs)
• Filthy rich

Ring any bells?

And do you believe any of these sayings are true? It’d be totally normal if you do. We certainly thought those sayings were real as we were slaving away at the Corporate coalface!

But, Good News is in Store!

Those sayings above, are simply UNTRUE.

They’re only self-limiting beliefs, which are thoughts unwittingly (unintentionally) seeded in our minds by people we trust or spend a lot of time with in our formative years.

And, you can alter your beliefs relatively easily.

To start earning what you’re truly worth, you must change such thoughts. It’s what we want for you. Read on and learn how to do that.

So, let's delve into those 3 common money matters, or money myths, now. The goal is reframe them for you, to provide you with a strategy to overturn each of those myths in your manner of thinking.

There are 3 key common money matters that are hobbling far too many worthy people – keeping them stuck – tricking them into remaining financially limited.

What Do We Mean: Reframe?

To reframe, means to change the frame of reference, or change the ‘lens' through which you ‘view’ your unquestioned beliefs about your money matters.

In other words, to adopt a positive perspective about money instead of a negative one.

The easiest way for you to understand reframing is to do this exercise:

Take those common phrases or sayings you believe to be true about money and think of the exact opposite!

Change those sayings around in your head, put a positive spin on them, then say them out loud:

So, “look after the pennies” becomes “make a FORTUNE and give the pennies to charity”.

“I’m a money magnet” (this is a favourite of ours and is the name of a folder on each of our computers).

“Making money is easy”. More on this in a minute…

“Money is everything”.

When you repeatedly say these sayings out loud, you reframe your beliefs.

We used to quote them in the shower most mornings. And running, pounding out a nice beat to the new affirmations.

Now you understand how straight-forward it is to reframe any self-limiting belief… let’s now tackle the 3 common money matters or myths about money you'll want and need to overcome in order to have success online.

[1] Does Money Buy You Happiness?

Over the years we’ve all become confused about the connection between money and happiness. There are numerous posts professing that happiness increases logarithmically with wealth. That is, up until the US$75k mark. After US$75k, the happiness factor starts to peter out!

So, the truth is: money doesn’t equal happiness.

Not at all.

It’s kinda like the chicken and egg debate – you know – which comes first?

There are many studies conducted on the psychology of happiness (when you’ve finished reading this article, maybe search Google for ‘happiness research’ to learn more). All research resolves that happiness is the precursor to success, and not the other way around.

Curious, hey?

So, what does this mean?

Happiness Must Exist Before Money Can Flow

True success will only come from inner peace and happiness.

The painful fact is: unhappy people are unlikely to have the success, money, and wealth they desire.

Better focus on happiness, right?

Hope you realise happiness is a choice?

There are many wonderful things you can choose to do to make you happy in the now, and keep you happy, which don’t require money ????

How To Choose Happiness First

Discover how easy it is to choose happiness by downloading the PDF happily titled: 15 Happiness Factors Every Frazzled Person Should Know

Download it now to read later.

Then come straight back to this post to learn how to broaden your horizons, and hone your money matters, to have success online.

Because… when you’re happy, grateful, and blissed out, your internal energy will be positively buzzing.

Yoko Ono, Musician, (and Mrs John Lennon) said:

I realized that if my thoughts immediately affect my body, I should be careful about what I think. Now if I get angry, I ask myself why I feel that way. If I can find the source of my anger, I can turn that negative energy into something positive.

And Dr Wayne Dyer, 50^th best-selling author of all time, said:

Thoughts are mental energy; they're the currency that you have to attract what you desire. Learn to stop spending that currency on thoughts you don't want.

Everywhere we look, we see energy in its purest form – waves crashing on the beach, thunder and lightning storms, plants and trees growing.

We know everything is energy. Including all human beings.

We also know that good energy attracts more good energy, and bad energy attracts more bad energy. And you’re bound by this universal truth too.

The question is, what’s your energy drawing into your life? And how is it serving you? Or is it pushing away the things, people and outcomes you desire most?

Money flows to you when you manifest the energy inside of you.

So, what’s inside of you? If you’re thinking negatively about money – how could that negative energy ever possibly draw the success you desire?

Think of it This Way…

If you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice. If you squeeze a lemon, you get lemon juice.

What energy are you giving out when life squeezes the essence out of you? Is it good and happy, or bad and sad?

To test out the energy in you, do this simple exercise:

Just for a moment… SMILE… and notice how that instantly shifts your inner state. Why does that work? Because, a smile is good energy. You can’t think of negative stuff when you’re smiling ????

Imagine how it feels to spread your smiling energy through your mind and your thoughts about money and self-worth. It will feel amazing, and will boosts your confidence, and your money attractor factor.

Bottom line of your money matters is:

You won’t reach any level of success until you feel worthy of that success. When you feel worthy of a million dollars, that's when you’ll attract it into your life.

You’ll only ever earn what you believe you're worthy of.

It's critical to ask yourself: “where do I not feel worthy?” and “what are my negative thoughts about money?”

What’s inside of you will manifest into the energy of money.

You’ll only receive what you believe you are worthy of. Never more. That’s annoying to read and learn, but it’s the truth. Consider your results to date as evidence.

Start:

• re-framing those stock money sayings today
• doing things that make you happy today
• harnessing positive energy today ????

Because, money solves a lot of problems to ensure your happiness shines through.

But… you must be happy first.

[2] Earning Money Is Hard Work

In our opinion, this stock phrase is the biggest con in the world.

Bigger than Santa!

It’s holding billions of people stuck in the 9-5 rat race. They THINK that’s what they’re supposed to do, that it’s the only way – work hard, work long hours, and exchange time for money.

WRONG.

WHEN did that all go wrong then?

This workaholic mind-set is relatively new – working long hours comes from around the time of World Wars I & II where the populations had to graft and toil to rebuild their lives and get their countries back on their feet.

This idiotic ‘hard work’ work ethic was ‘born’ after WWII – when weekends and vacations became short breaks so people could get back to work – and, sadly, that hard work ethic stuck

But… when it comes to money matters, this new philosophy is much more fun.

Money is as easy to create as it is to breathe. There’s no lack in our universe. Acceptance of this ‘law’ is key.

Maybe you’re struggling to accept that truth given the ‘conditioning stemming from the post-war mentality?

Consider this Perspective,

Our breath is the most precious substance in our lives, right? We totally take for granted that as we exhale, our next breath will be there to inhale. But, if there wasn't another breath to take, we wouldn’t last 3 minutes.

However, if the power that created us has given us enough breath for as long as we shall live, can we not trust that everything else we need will be supplied too?

Or, think of it another way…

Does the sun struggle to rise every morning?

And does the grass struggle to grow?

Do you struggle to breathe? You’re competing with 7.5 billion people – do you struggle to get air?

No.

What's noteworthy is… each of us has 37.2 trillion cells – unique fingerprints – unique voice boxes – unique brains – we’re all simply divinely unique – and yet, you were created EFFORTLESSLY. You breathe, grow your hair and nails, you walk… all effortlessly.

So, Why the Hell Do We Struggle in Some Aspects of Life?

Struggle is a man-made creation. We stupidly CHOOSE struggle, believe it or not. We crave the adventure or challenge of pitting our wits against that what we can’t outwardly control.

However, it's possible to inwardly control your struggle!

Every single second, you’re manifesting your life experience.

Manifesting is effortless.

Why is your life so messed up?

Successful people think and feel very differently.

The fact is, the life you have right now is the product of the thoughts, feelings, and emotions you had 3, 6, 9 months ago. It’s the way our minds work. We need to stop opining over what’s not right and start picturing and attracting good times and freedom.

And start with loving who you are and what you’re capable of achieving. Once you truly, fully, and completely love yourself, accept yourself, and believe in yourself – what will your life be like? Will you choose to struggle, or would choose to have it all?

It's time to question your status quo.

Because earning money is like breathing. The notion of it being hard work is a falsehood, or a limiting belief, or a wrong story you’ve been telling yourself for far too long.

Change the tune and magic happens.

How do we know – rejigging our thinking in this manner enabled us to learn the affiliate marketing business model, where key systems are automated, and we leverage other people’s products. We've set up these systems so they're pootling along nicely, and very little effort is required on our part to earn a healthy income each year. Seriously!

(Yeah – we too wouldn’t have thought it possible with our 2010 manner of thinking!)

[3] You Need Money To Make Money!

Some of the biggest and most loved companies were started by an entrepreneur who had no money.

Thinking you need money to make money is like pulling the hand-brake on your life – which is stopping you from being resourceful.

Our Mothers always used to tell us: “money doesn’t grow on trees, you know”.

But, money does grow on trees, because pieces of paper are made from trees – albeit, pieces of paper with arbitrary values.

Consider the history of money… the first currency came from bartering. Merchants wrote IOU slips when they didn’t have the right commodity available to exchange, say, tea or cloth or beer.

Then, silver coins replaced the IOU slips because metal was more durable than IOU slips. Then it became cheaper to have sturdy paper notes and non-silver coins.

Now… it’s easier to ‘tap’ and pay digitally. It won’t be long before notes and coins disappear from the Western World.

BUT… all along, money has always been pegged to value.

Money Flows To Value

Money is always circulating, and in today's digital world its velocity is ever increasing.

There’s more than enough money to go around.

You simply have at add value for money to flow to you.

A better way to think of your money matters is:

All I need to make money is to serve others with love, creativity and determination.

Value attracts value. Add value and get dollars in return. Make sense?

To add value, you need to be valuable. We give ideas on adding value in this blogpost.

Now you know what it means to add value, here’s how you approach the making money problem when coming from a space of lack. Ask yourself:

What Can I do to Sort My Financial Matters Today?

Don't think: “How can I make $10k?”

Instead, ask yourself: “How can I provide $10k of value out there in the world?”

When you reframe your money mindset beyond scarcity and fear, your brain creates new neural pathways to channel greater abundance and prosperity into your life.

It’s simple science. A straight forward energy equation.

Positive energy attracts positive outcomes like success, wealth, and happiness.

Negative energy gets more of the same – more scarcity, lack, and distress.

To change your vibration or energy or feeling about money (panicky about your bank account, nervous about paying bills, insecurity of the size of your pension post) simply start to think how you can add value in other people’s lives.

The thing is, if you’re not in appreciation of life and rewards, you’re in expectation of life and rewards – which is the wrong energy.

Once you appreciate everything and expect nothing in return, you’ll manifest like a magician.

Take Six Figure Mentors

Because we've learned the ropes and leveraged Six Figure Mentors since 2010, we get $2 back for every $1 we invest in our advertising, over a 45-60 day period. When you work the maths for a year, that’s a cracking 600% return in 12 months.

(But we make NO guarantee how the numbers will work out for you.)

Blows bank interest rates outta the water, don’t you agree?

Yet, when you provide superb levels of value in your online business, and practice low cost publicity methods… yes, the return will be very much slower, but the return will be very much greater in proportion to your investment. Hope that make sense?

It’s never to late to discover a powerful online selling system that people all around the world are using to start and grow profitable online businesses.

We’re in awe of this system, we’re amazed by the people who leverage it, and are grateful of the lifestyle it provides. Feel the energy?

Money Matters Takeaway Time

Successful people back themselves.

They function from beliefs like: “I’ve seen many people have had success with Six Figure Mentors, so I can too”.

They say things to themselves like: “I’ve always landed on my feet in the past, so I’ll succeed at Six Figure Mentors too as long as I keep going”.

They also fall in love with the journey of success and are happy to fail their way forward.

They know the view at the top of the mountain won’t last long, but the climb will be an adventure to remember, and looking back to see how far they’ve come will fill their heart with joy, and passion, and fulfilment.

Ready to become the best version of yourself, sort your financial matters, and create the life you deserve?

Simply keep your money mentality in optimal condition.

When you think if your relationship with money, be in the small minority of people who treat their bank account like a trusted friend. Don’t be like most people who view it with guilt, fear, and anxiety.

One of the best ways to improve your relationship with money is the same way you’d go about improving any relationship – with love.

It’s impossible to enjoy a good relationship with money and create the impact you want unless you’re willing to love it.

Know what you want.

Believe in yourself.

Dial in your positive money energy.

Ditch those dud negative beliefs about money.

Sort out your money matters once and for all.

For the sake of your future, family and fulfilment, give up those shitty conversations around money, start investing, and get happy ????

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The post 3 Money Matters You’ll Need To Overcome To Have Success Online appeared first on gregandfionascott.com.

You might be able to drift through life simply knowing how to get a job or how to drive a car, but… will that make you truly happy and fulfilled?

The TRUTH is, if you don't ‘work on yourself' from the inside out, life can be a pretty dismal existence.

Doing nothing noteworthy in your life is a horrible mistake. It only leads to a hum-drum, tedious, day-to-day way of being. Especially when changing the way you behave, and how you think of yourself, is incredibly easy to do – it simply takes practice.

We invite you to open your mind to possibility, opportunity, and ability. Because most humans are intelligent, adaptive, and willing to be lifetime learners. Agreed?

So we’ve put together a handy reference list of our top 10 books to transform your life, business and happiness. These books have helped transform us from super high paid corporates to laptop lifestylers. Which means we earn income passively while travelling the world 9 months of each year. NOTE: there’s nothing remarkable about us. We’re ordinary, everyday people – we've simply learned how to believe, achieve and succeed.

What follows our top 10 highly recommended, transformational, personal growth books. You must read all 10 books in order to be truly happy, self-fulfilled, and live life on your terms.

Happiness is not something ready-made.
It comes from your own actions.

Dalai Lama

These top 10 books have helped us totally transform our lifestyle, business and relationships in two short years:

In our humble opinion, they’re essential reading whether in paperback in or in digital form. (We won’t get into that argument as Greg loves Kindle books and Fiona loves paperbacks). The books are ranked in a progressive order to build your entrepreneurial knowledge, understanding and belief

1. Think and Grow Rich

by Napoleon Hill

Number one recommended read of our top 10 books, holds the #1 spot not only because it’s a revolutionary best seller of all time, but because it's the first book we read to change our belief about the accessibility of success. And millions of others have also become ultra-successful after reading this pivotal book. It's an influence book and also a personal growth book.

Back in the 1930’s Napoleon Hill interviewed the world’s most successful achievers and analysed the common characteristics which lead to their success. The book is dubbed the “Granddaddy of All Motivational Literature” and is updated for the 21^st century so is totally relevant for today.

Why you need to read this book:

Think And Grow Rich lays out your journey to wealth by leveraging the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. It instils the mindset required to succeed in everything you do.

You're encouraged to seek the secret to success, which is progressively revealed in each chapter. You’ll learn how achievement actually occurs, plus a formula for it, which allows an average person to attain success in whatever they put their mind to.

“Anything the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can be achieved” Napoleon Hill

2. Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

By Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter

Kiyosaki shares what he learned from the two key men who impacted his formative years. His real father, a highly educated man who earned a good salary, was financially bereft. Kiyosaki's other ‘Dad’, his best friend’s father, was a high school drop-out, turned self-made multi-millionaire. His poor dad’s lifelong monetary problems contrasted with the abundant life lead by his rich dad.

This book is timeless and is essential reading for anyone who harbours private or negative attitudes about money. The issues tackled sound complicated, but they’re explained in a way a teenager can understand.

Why you need to read this top 10 book:

Sadly, most people don’t know the difference between money and wealth. Or the difference between an asset and a liability. And what those differences mean to you. All is revealed when you invest a few short hours to read this book.

In a nutshell, wealth doesn't come from the supposed security of a job with a pay packet where you exchange your time for an hourly rate that's set by someone else. We learned that lesson the HARD WAY when we were laid off from seemingly secure 6 figure jobs. Wealth comes from something that generates money passively, which'll continue to do so even when you’re not around. So:

• an online business with high revenues and low costs
• a property with rent higher than a mortgage and maintenance costs
• a creative work that brings in royalties

Wealthy people know the difference between an asset and a liability. An asset is anything that generates money and puts money in your pocket, like an online business. A liability is anything that takes money out of your pocket. So things you might think are assets (your home, your car, your expensive sport or hobby kit) are most likely liabilities. The co-authors provide this necessary financial education in a story-like, straight-talking, easy-to-read manner. Please read it TODAY. It truly deserves to be #2 in our top ten books to read.

3. Three Feet from Gold: Turn Your Obstacles Into Opportunities!

by Sharon L. Lechter and Greg Reid

Sharon Lechter, the co-author of bestselling Rich Dad Poor Dad, is a very successful accountant in America. She's motivated to make children financially aware, which is why the Napoleon Hill Foundation approached her to co-author this book.

It was our privilege to meet Sharon in London in 2013. We loved her infectious passion and admired her ability to keep explanations simple. So, we bought this book, plus another of her books, ‘Outwitting The Devil', both of which ought to be in our top 10 books list, but we had to choose one – and this one wins due to the impact it had on us.

Why you need to read this book:

Three Feet from Gold tells a compelling modern-day story of a young writer. He's tasked to interview high achievers, business leaders, and other influential figures, about the importance of persistently keeping at it to attain your goals.

The story uses well-known, inspirational, real-life stories to help you find your own personal Success Formula, to help you choose good counsel, and most importantly, to help you learn about never giving up.

4. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich

by Timothy Ferriss

Tim Ferris tells an entertaining story about how he transitioned from an underpaid office worker, to be among the New Rich (his term). In his simple, sharp, insightful writing style, he explains how to:

• establish a profitable business step by step
• build residual (passive) income sources in detail
• create heaps of free time to be free to do exactly what you want.

It's one of the most practical business books you can read.

Why you need to read this book:

If you want to escape the 9-5 rat race or want to extricate yourself from the common trap of exchanging your time for money, so you can start to create the life of your dreams, then this book is for you. It provides a fresh approach on how to:

• reduce your workload to the most essential tasks and become effective at everything you do
• think differently from most, and WHY common thinking doesn’t serve you
• start a profitable business (online) without a large investment
• avoid costly mistakes in business

Tim genuinely wants to help you quit your frustrating circumstances and start living life on your terms – that means: work where you want, how often you want, and with who you want.

5. Living A Laptop Lifestyle: Reclaim Your Life By Making Money Online (No Experience Required)

by Greg and Fiona Scott

This book is the pivotal next step, following hot on the heels of The 4-Hour Work Week, which explains how and why the internet is the very best vehicle to leverage to achieve time freedom.

It’s a best seller, is highly rated on Amazon, and is a finalist in three international book awards.

Why you need to read this top 10 book:

Of course, we’re biased – of all the business books out there, ours is the best, so must be included in our top 10 books list ????. We wrote the book to open people’s eyes to the alternatives an online business can provide. If you have a computer, an internet connection, and a passion, you’re already sitting on a mountain of value. We’ve prepared a pragmatic, vital guide on how to leverage all that.

Each chapter is composed to suit the budding entrepreneur in you – to take you from the very basics of getting started, right through to creating your very own website, and generating a sustainable income online.

Here’s what Brian Tracy said about Living A Laptop Lifestyle:

“This amazing book shows you how to quickly tap into the technology at your fingertips, increase your income, simplify your life, and achieve all your goals.” Brian Tracy

6. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time

by Brian Tracy

This book is in #7 spot of our top 10 books for three reasons:

1. we love Brian Tracy’s stuff (and he endorsed Living A Laptop Lifestyle),
2. procrastination is a huge problem for a LOT of people. Successful people get stuff done, so there’s no time for putting off tomorrow what can be done today
3. it’s another short, quick read which provides the 21 most effective ways to conquer procrastination and achieve more.

Why you need to read this book:

Do you want to get organized, simplify your life, and have much prized time freedom?

This concise book doesn't cover the psychology of procrastination; instead, it covers stuff like motivation and reasoning for determining your priorities, delegating and/or eliminating some tasks, knowing what things are okay to procrastinate about, and which ‘frog’ (your biggest, ugliest task that'll get you the greatest results) to tackle first each morning.

This is one of the best business books that'll help you develop habits and skills of accomplishing more than the average person, and in less time too – which is part and parcel of living a laptop lifestyle.

7. Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires

by Esther and Jerry Hicks

In progressing your personal development, we recommend you read Ask And It Is Given. It’s a philosophical book which offers an explanation of the connection between the power of thought and reality, and how we’re all in control of what we have, are and do. In other words, there’s no such thing as ‘fate’ or ‘the gods’ directing your life, as it’s all in your hands to live exactly as you wish.

This top 10 book teaches you to manifest your desires, which we first thought was ‘a bit woo woo’ but that’s simply because we didn’t really and truly understand anything about the universal laws of energy back then. But, to be honest, we were probably manifesting anyway – we simply didn’t put that label to it!

Why you need to read this book:

Wouldn’t you like to ask, and it's handed to you on a plate?

Because success in whatever you’re doing starts from within you – it’s in your hands (or your positive thinking mind) – and that’s exactly what the influence book ‘Ask and It is Given’ will help you achieve. Success!

It helps you to change the way you think and the way you view the world so you get what you want, and have the success you deserve.

The best part – are the 22 Processes that makeup half the book!

8. How To Get Lots Of Money For Anything Fast

by Stuart Lichtman and Joe Vitale

PLEASE don’t judge this book by it's cover – it’s not as it seems! It’s way more powerful than you can ever imagine!

Consider this introduction from Stuart Lichtman himself:

We’ve never met, but I know a couple of things about you:

[1]          No matter how much money you have now, you also have powerful abilities inside yourself that you are not taking full advantage of (yet)… and…

[2]          If someone told you about a new way to bring in a lot of money quickly – and it was legal and easy to do – you’d want to know more about it.

How do I know these things about you? This knowledge comes from years of experience with tens of thousands of people around the world. All kinds of people. And every one of them had hidden skills and talents they weren’t using nearly as powerfully as they could. What is more, once they knew about a secret (that I will tell you about today), their lives and their fortunes changed for the better – quickly and forever!

Stuart Lichtman has impressive credentials and delivers a tried and tested, practical, three-step process which can transform your world and bring you all the riches you’ve ever dreamed of (this triggered our spam filters a bit, but also spurred on our reading).

He says:

“I’ve proven this method will work by testing it on 50,000 people. Now you’re going to prove it will work for you.”

Why you need to read this book:

Seriously – it's in our top 10 books because you simply MUST read it. Read this blog post of how it worked for us.

9. DotCom Secrets: The Underground Playbook for Growing Your Company Online

by Russell Brunson

This book is actually our #1 marketing bible, but it's only in this #9 spot because budding affiliate marketers need a progressive learning track to build-up to the marketing stage. We believe Dotcom Secrets is one of the best books ever written about online marketing and sales. It contains loads of actionable advice on how to become a successful online marketer, it's easy to understand, and it's stocked with loads of examples.

We covet this book so much, we've got a well-thumbed paperback version, the audio version from Audible, and the kindle version for when we're travelling, simply because it's helped us earn thousands in affiliate marketing know-how.

Why you need to read this book:

To run an online business, you must understand:

• how to market or promote any product or service, whether physical or digital,
• the psychology of why people buy, and
• how to provide solutions for people in a meaningful way…

Russell's answers are set out in easy to read, down to earth, no fluff manner. He provides a ton of value for entrepreneurs by way of masterful storytelling.

10. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

by Robert B. Cialdini

Cialdini studied persuasion and social influence at the graduate and postgraduate level at the University of North Carolina and at Columbia University, then spent thirty-five years rigorously undertaking evidence-based research, across many industries, to study what moves people to change behaviour. The resulting influence book explains the psychology of why people buy and why they say “yes”, but more importantly how to apply such knowledge legitimately in your marketing.

Cialdini found most human behaviour is automatic, which allowed him to come up with Six Principles of Influence or six “rules of thumb” of persuasion, then discusses how each principle can be used to persuade and influence others. It’s jam-packed with real-world examples making it easy to appreciate, understand, and learn from.

Why you need to read this book:

This is a top 10 book because you'll learn the six universal principles of influence, and how to use them to become a skilled persuader – which is a must-have skill for any entrepreneur. Also, you’ll understand how to defend yourself against other influencers – which is vitally important when starting out if you want to avoid going down a lot of rabbit holes!!! (speaking from experience here!)

So, there you have our top 10 books

. . . that'll change your life forever, giving you the ability to control your time, finances and freedom.

Start reading, learning and achieving.

To purchase any of our top 10 books – simply click on the images or links above

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Most people die when they're 25 but do not get buried until they're 75

You know it deep down in your heart.

You think you’re the only one experiencing it.

It’s niggling away at your well-being.

You’d love to eradicate it… but simply don’t know how.

We'll reveal how to face your fears and have the unfear advantage.

How To Have The Unfear Advantage

If you’ve got a pulse – you’ve got fears!

Welcome to the human race ????

The interesting thing is: we're not born with our action-stopping fears!

We're actually only born with TWO fears:

[1] fear of falling (that's falling, not failing!)

[2] fear of loud noises

We ‘learn' all our other fears as we grow up – from our parents. our friends, our school teachers.

But that’s not all.

Most of our fears are only perceived… made up… mistaken beliefs.

Happily, we can UNLEARN and UNRAVEL them too – but more on how to face your fears in a minute.

First, here’s a powerful story we think'll help you understand that you’re not the only person on the planet with a fear problem:

The Tale of the Two Wolves…

Once upon a time there’s an old man who decided to take his grandson camping so he can share an important lesson in life…

When the old man feels the time is right…

He sits down by the fire… 

As he pokes the red-hot coals with a stick, plumes of red embers dance in the air…

Staring at the flames as they flicker, wild and free, hot and fierce…

As he listens to the wood crackle and pop…

An endearing expression appears across his wrinkled face, his skin weathered and broken-in like old leather…

He takes a big, deep breath…

And he tells his grandson the simple wolf story, packed with a lesson he knows may change the course of the boy’s life forever…

“A fight is going on inside of me,” he said to the boy.

The boy stares at him with great curiosity in his big brown eyes.

“It's a terrible fight and it's between two wolves. One is evil and full of fear…”

“The other is good and full of truth and self-belief…

… The SAME FIGHT is going on inside you, and inside everyone else too.”

The boy thought deeply about this, then looked at his grandfather and asked:

“Which wolf will win, Grandpa?”

He simply replied…

“The one you feed.”

Now… the lesson here is simple, right?

And it’s a life changing one too…

… Face your fears and feed your TRUTH and SELF BELIEF, and you’ll be unstoppable. Feed the FEAR? You’ll be shackled for life.

The reality is, you have a choice:

Either fearlessly seize the day to get what makes your heart sing. OR feed the fear and continue to be stalked by mediocrity?

Educate yourself to embrace the digital world… OR… allow unnecessary fear to keep you stuck, unfulfilled, dispassionate.

Understand, Embrace, and Face Your Fear

Consider these facts:

Fear is natural.

It keeps us safe.

It’s how we’re wired.

So, fear isn’t fundamentally bad nor good.

When you face your fears and understand fear for what it is, you can use that knowledge to reclaim control of your life and strangle the fears which have been dictating your inaction.

Know Your Particular Fear…

Identifying your fears to face is the first step to stopping feeding them or allowing them to control you.

So, which particular fear is blocking you from building your liberating online business?

What fear is holding your back? Because you can’t tell us that everything’s 100% hunky-dory with your finances, lifestyle, and time freedom?

Maybe we can help you identify the fear that’s blocking you from living your best life? You know, the one that keeps you robotically going through the days, working insane hours, living for the weekend.

Because awareness of your fear/s is the first step to face your fears and deal them a karate chop to the floor.

We asked 9 brave souls to bare their fears, then share how they overcome those fears.

Listen to them all – right through to the end – and note the people you resonate with the most:

Anything sound familiar?

Bet one of those people spoke your mind?

You now know you’re certainly not alone.

Hopefully, you’ve identified the primary fear stopping you in your tracks.

Fear Breeds Regret

At the end of the day, you’ll regret the chances you passed up due to fear, MORE than you’ll regret failing. So, embrace risk with open arms and face your fears today.

We often ask people who are afraid to start an online business:

“What’s the worst that can happen to you? Will you die?”

It’s as if death is the worst thing that could happen. But it isn’t. Life goes on.

Remember:

The worst thing that could happen by letting fear get in the way of change and success is dying a slow death inside while you’re still alive!

Steve Jobs’ on Fear

Jobs’ vision to make a dent in the universe mattered more to him than being judged or his ego being stroked. He had the courage to speak his truth at all costs.

Many of life's great achievers are acutely comfortable in their own skin. They don't go through life with their emotional handbrake on.

But all the rest of us will avoid judgement, do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing.

That’s why it’s life-threateningly important you get this one truth:

“you won’t achieve your goals until you deal with your fears”

Is Anyone Watching?

There's a paragraph from an autographed copy of #ASKGARYVEE. (Gary Vaynerchuk is named on Fortune Magazine’s 40 Under 40 list, and Business Week’s list of the top 20 people every entrepreneur should follow on social media, and his latest book answers hundreds of entrepreneurial and small business owners’ questions.)…

Where on page 21 Gary says:

“There’s no doubt that taking the first step can be terrifying. I get it. I really do. But I also have to wonder, would you be so afraid if you knew no one was watching? See, I think what really scares people is not fear of failure, but fear of failing in front of someone who matters. Like your mom or dad. Your best friend. A sibling. A mentor. A spouse. None of us wants to disappoint someone we admire.

But if you want to be an entrepreneur – if that's what you really, really want – you cannot give a shit about what other people think of you. Not even your parents.”

We won't beat around the bush – people will question you, doubt you, and worry for you – but… when you believe in yourself, you'll learn to ignore them, and they'll learn to respect your choices.

Worst case scenario – if you do make a mess of things – at least you gave it your best shot – and if people laugh at you – they're not people you want around you. Period.

Face Up

So… if fear is holding you back from learning how to start your online lifestyle business today – think about whose opinion really matters to you the most – and FACE UP to that person, and say this to them:

“I'm about to set up an online business so I can create a sustainable income from the internet, and free up a ton of time, so I can be more present with you and do the things I've been wanting to do for years.

I don't want to let you down, but I know learning how to market anything online is going to be a new experience, a new education, and a new direction for me… HOWEVER I believe I can do it, so I need to know that if I take longer than expected to become profitable, you won't think less of me, or scorn me? Because that would certainly crush me.”

Such honesty and humility will be touching and endearing ????

Anyone with a heart will be chuffed to know their opinion matters to you. And, chances are, they'll be super supportive and have your back ????

Once you’ve had THAT conversation, the one stated above, the online world is your oyster.

Fingers crossed, that's all you need to face your fears and get started today.

Bottom line is, surround yourself with positive, encouraging, supportive people – and not people who want to drag you down and hold you in place.

Happily, the Six Figure Mentors Community are the people that fit the bill.

What Strategies Work To Overcome Fears?

There are many strategies to help overcome fears, and they all work differently for different people – as they say: different strokes for different folks.

These are our faves:

RELEASE

If your fear revolves around money (losing money, being scammed, not making a cent) or self-worth and being judged – there’s a high possibility that fear took seed in you when you were little. It’s a fear mimicked from your parents and isn’t really a true fear of yours – it’s one you’ve unintentionally adopted.

In that case, you simply need to consciously release those fears that were unwittingly and unknowingly planted by family.

Pointedly acknowledge them, then consciously let them go as not belonging to you and not controlling your behaviour.

To learn how to face your fears by releasing them, here’s a free short course on releasing

MEDITATE

Meditating for 20-30 minutes each day helps calm your mind and quieten your fears. So, it's a lovely, subtle way to face your fears.

There are other self-love and creative benefits of meditation too, but investing ‘you’ time each day will start to show results in a few weeks.

Simply sit still in a private space of your own, maybe with a flower or candle, or in nature. And listen to any of the following:

• there are many apps to choose from (Calm, Headspace, Awakened Mind), or
• search for meditation music you like on Youtube, or
• search for guided meditations on Youtube, where you’re guided how to focus your awareness, or
• buy a learn to meditate course, or
• trial guided meditation programs like this one

JOURNAL

Journal each day to touch base with your thoughts, experiences, emotions and reflections surrounding your fears. Whether you do it after dinner, or at the start of your day, spend 5 minutes every day getting stuff outta your head and down on paper.

Bottling up your fears, or being in denial about them, won't resolve anything, but writing stuff about them gives your brain a tangible or visual opportunity to process things differently.

Liberate yourself from those fears. Note down:

• what you’re grateful for
• what you love about yourself
• what you feel about different people, situations, opportunities
• what you feel about your fears
• what your purpose in life may be
• what you want to achieve (even if you have no idea how you’ll achieve it in the moment)

Over time, you’ll build up a stack of personal proof that your fears and worries are pointless and aren’t in fact real.

When you face your fear like this – the fear diminishes and eventually… pffttt… it magically disappears.

VISUALISE

Visualising your success, without fear, works for many people – it certainly worked for us.

There’s a product we absolutely love called Mind Movies. Simply put, it’s the key to eliminating your fears to get everything you want in life, and more.

A Mind Movie is a little 3-minute video of your very own creation, like a 3-minute digital vision board with subliminal programming and brainwave entrainment and your own personal soundtrack. Think of it as a customised one-stop solution for everything you need to reprogram your mind to overcome your fears.

It’s a revolutionary blend of technology which dives deep into your subconscious mind, to SUPERCHARGE your way to changing your thoughts, habits, fears, beliefs, and emotions faster than you could possibly imagine!

Far fetched? Not at all.

You don’t need to know any kind of technical mumbo-jumbo. If you can click a mouse or tap a tablet… you’ll be able to make your very first Mind Movies within minutes!

Take your Mind Movie wherever you go! Put them on your smartphone and reinforce your dreams, anytime, anywhere!

READ MORE

If you’re anything like us, the first time you learn something on a new subject (your fears, in this instance) you’re a bit sceptical about it, right? Because it feels ignorant to have been ‘in the dark’ on a subject others know a lot about.

BUT… more stuff on the subject happens to ‘pop up’ on your radar to read. And the more you read, the more you understand, and the more you accept.

The upshot is, you’ll learn a new variety of strategies to implement yourself which’ll blow your fears outta the water.

So, as soon as you’ve finished reading this post, high tail it over to Google and search for ‘ways to overcome fear’ or ‘how to face my fears' and soak up everything that’s relevant to you and your fear.

Don’t Worry Be Happy

Can you hear Bob Marley crooning the lyrics to his happy little song:

Here's a little song I wrote

You might want to sing it note for note

Don't worry, be happy

In every life we have some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

Don't worry, be happy

And Earl Nightingale of Nightingale Conant (World Leaders in Personal Development) says:

Only 8 percent of your worries are worth concerning yourself about. Ninety-two percent are pure fog with no substance at all.

Earl Nightingale

Research has been carried out since Nightingale uttered those words, to determine what proportion of our perceived fears ever come to pass.

The studies conclude that 85% of what we worry about, or fear, NEVER materializes.

And of the 15% of fears that do happen, the situation is never as bad as what people imagined. We humans are resilient and deal with crises far better than we ever imagine.

In fact, of the 15% of research subjects who’s fears happened, 79% of them discovered they could manage the crisis better than they expected, OR the predicament helped them learn a worthwhile lesson.

Doing the sums (85% plus 79% of 15%), means 97% of the stuff you worry about is totally unnecessary, right?

Conversely, we can also manufacture optimism. It’s as easy to think cheerfully and optimistically as it is to think of doom and gloom and fear. It’s a choice.

Choose to think positively and make the right choices.

Think positive, get positive.

So, wouldn't it be advantageous to face your fears and risk learning a new skill in order to attract more good things into your life? Rather than stay stuck clawing at the coalface of life?

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BUT…

You’re wondering if you can do it too?

Maybe wondering what you’ll need to do to run it, day to day?

Perhaps wondering what skills you need to learn vs what skills you have already?

Wonder no more ???? We've recorded a video for you to tell you:

We know there are many visually oriented people who don't have a tangible sense of what a digital business comprises – what it looks like – how it works – and what you have to do to run it.

So, we thought we'd share the highest, most overreaching, principle of doing ANY business online involves helping people solve a problem.

And you do that by giving value.

And we'll cover what we mean by value in a minute.

The Big Principal in Online Business Today

But first, we'll explain, at a high level, or as an overview, the big principal we strive to achieve in our business all the time – and that is:

help people every day get further away from where they don’t want to be and closer to where they do want to be

And the easiest way we do that is by sharing the story of our journey online. How we went from stressed out employees to stress free entrepreneurs having a built an online business that places key emphasis on lifestyle first.

Heck, we went as far as to write a book about our failings and the mistakes to avoid, but you don't need to write a book. I (Fiona) kinda needed to prove a point as I'd gone through life misbelieving numbers were my only strength – which is why I trained to become an Accountant. So, I needed to embrace my creative side and switch off the limiting belief I'd about being rubbish at writing, grammar and the English language. That's one of the reasons we wrote our book, anyway.

Living A Laptop Lifestyle

Living A Laptop Lifestyle tells the story of our journey from being laid off from our corporate jobs, getting uncomfortable with learning a new skill without having to go back to school to study, and failing forward in our quest to create the perfect income. Which is an income which is easily scalable, with unlimited upside, and is also generated largely passively – so we have time to be tourists and travel the world 9 months each year.

That story is also here on our website – we wrote it once, but different people swing by our website every day to read our story and get the sense of self-belief they can transform their lifestyles too.

And we share many snapshots of our journey is this post: What Is A Digital Life, And Why Should You Care

Share Your Journey

So, the key principal we want to help you understand today, is you need to be prepared to share your journey, like:

• what you've achieved in life so far,
• what's not quite worked out as planned,
• what mistakes you've made,
• what you're not happy about and why and how it makes you feel, and then share
• what action you're taking to make change happen for you.

We see it time and again in the Six Figure Mentors community we're members of – the value in the community is people sharing their stories, their learnings, their fears, their little wins, and their eventual successes.

So, the people in our digital community who share their journey, and don't hide away and say nothing, are more likely to succeed because today we live in a world where your journey is your value.

People who succeed take part in community because they’re willing to share and give value – everything in business these days is about adding value to the lives of others.

What's in it for YOU?

The person you become and the advice you give based on your experience and journey is of huge value to others setting out on the same journey as you.

You'll become a person of impact and value to society. Even if that value or information is:

• something you learned yourself only last week, or
• how you battled and overcame a fear or concern, or
• how you set up your home office, or
• why you're starting an online business…

Everything like that is worth sharing and makes you a person of value.

When you share and are a wee bit vulnerable in your sharing, you'll find what it is you're looking for.

When you give value by sharing your story – money will surely follow – as it’s certainly true for all these people.

So, hopefully you understand that the ROI is your journey because you've become valuable.

Your Personal Value

You don't have to be someone you're not, you simply have to be your authentic self and share what you're up to in the world:

• Maybe you had a rubbish day at work, perhaps your boss took all the credit for something you did, or
• perhaps you worked your but off to meet a report deadline and no-one looked at your report a week later, or
• perhaps your boss simply got out of bed the wrong side and needed to vent at someone and that someone just happened to be you

In those scenarios, sharing how you coped, or what did you do to turn the situation around, is very valuable information to someone who's got little idea how to handle that scenario from a self-reassurance standpoint. Right?

When you're relatable, and share the ups and downs in life, it makes you stand out. Because life isn’t always a bed of roses, is it?

It’s our stories that connect. So, age/sex/nationalty don't matter. It's our beliefs, our characters, and our perspectives, that matter.

Those You Can't Help With Your Online Business

There are some people out there looking for something we can't offer them, simply because their expectations are totally unrealistic. So, they don't come from the space, or the idea, of wanting to improve themselves by embracing personal development. However personal development is the key to success, it’s the inner game of always growing and improving yourself.

The people we can't help, aren’t willing to give a little bit of themselves, and aren’t willing to share any value.

When you accept and embrace the value you already have in your life to date, you’ll connect with more and more people.

So, it's super important to be of value and to have integrity in today's social world. That's why everything is centred around community and culture and personal progression.

That's why we keep up with the community, stay checked in, and always reach out to help others who are one or two steps behind us.

Hope you see that by being personal, relatable, and sharing value, is the primary principle in creating a winning digital business that provides you with a perfect income?

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Because of that, maybe you’re struggling financially, forever worried about money, racking up debt with no idea how to repay it?

And you’re sick and tired of that poverty mindset keeping you stuck?

Good news – there’s a solution.

First, there’s a video you must watch, then there’s fixed steps you must to take to turn the tables on being poor.

Click to watch this video now:

The guy in the video is Robert Kiyosaki, author of the #1 Personal Finance book of all time, Rich Dad Poor Dad. Robert’s book tells his story of growing up with two dads – his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad – and how both men shaped his thoughts about money, wealth, and investing.

To paraphrase the video:

When you hear “I can’t afford it”… it becomes your reality. That mindset is the fast-track to demise, poverty and thinking small.

A closed statement like that becomes an excuse. Your brain shuts down and you become what you think – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But, It’s Not Anyone’s Fault!

Poor people are the victims of their upbringing, and their schooling. So, the people they’re surrounded by in their formative years have unwittingly conditioned them also to be poor (up until now, that is).

Of course, we’re not saying your parents are bad people – but consider how many of your insecurities are a by-product of your parent’s hang ups?

Your parents did their absolute best to raise you, but they didn’t do THE best. That’s because they carried over conditioning from their childhoods too.

Our parents grew up during World War II when many foods like meat, dairy, eggs, tinned stuff, jam and biscuits were rationed and restricted. They tell many stories of kids queuing for food staples, baking their own bread, and squabbling over a single apple or orange.

So, it’s obvious where their scarcity mindset comes from, and why, as kids, we had to eat every morsel on our plates at mealtimes (including the mashed swede and nutmeg ew!). It’s understandable why “we can’t afford it” was uttered so frequently to us as kids. It was said so much that we gave up ever asking for anything and got after-school-jobs as quickly as we could, so we could buy those things ourselves. Guess that was our earliest experience of thinking: “what can I do to afford it”!

If you have kids, think about one of their habits that annoys you the most. Chances are it's something they picked up from you because kids are avid learners and avid copiers!

The Biggest Instigator of Poor Thinking

The school system is the biggest culprit because it teaches us to think poor and stay poor.

How so? Western education primes us to get good grades and get a job, be an employee, work hard and… (you know the story – it’s omnipresent in our society)

But that indoctrination hasn’t kept pace with the warp-speed world we live in today. It doesn’t prepare us for contemporary living available in this digital age.

Remember your school days. Chances are your classes were the same as ours – heavily focused on theory and rote learning. You probably weren’t ever encouraged to think creatively or entrepreneurially. Nor did you learn any financial intelligence, about buying and selling property, or how the tax system works. Right?

(How to love yourself and mindfulness are two other huge topics that aren’t taught in school either. It’s like the politicians wish to keep us emotionally stupid as well as financially stupid!)

Anyways, we believe the onus is on us to go out and learn this stuff ourselves. We knew we’d only become rich or financially self-reliant once we gained some financial knowledge, hand-in-hand with a positive, can-do mindset to support it.

What you fill your head with is what’ll bring you success and riches, because your mind is your most important asset in any financial situation.

So instead of saying to yourself: “I can’t afford it”… you must train yourself to think with empowering open questions like:

“What Can I Do To Afford It?”

As you may be aware, we’re keen proponents of the digital education offered by Six Figure Mentors and Digital Experts Academy. But, like all purpose driven education, there’s an investment involved.

Recently, we asked people what’s keeping them stuck from enrolling in the education, and three different people answered as follows:

[1] how do I start from literally nothing while supporting my wife 3 kids

[2] I’m looking for an auto run system to run cheaply and without worry, but I have no funds at the moment

[3] I’ve been living on Government hand-outs for 2 years

Can you understand how these people’s way of thinking has kept them stuck? They can’t afford to invest in the liberating Six Figure Mentors education because they’re not thinking resourcefully as to “What can I do to afford Six Figure Mentors world-class digital education?”

When people are poor mentally, they’re always negative, they believe the world owes them a living, they play the victim in life, and see problems and barriers instead of solutions and opportunity. Sadly, they’ll always be poor, and no amount of money will help them – UNLESS they change their mindset and how they think.

The Moment You Accept A Salary Your Brain Goes Dead

As we said, society dictates that we get a good education, then get a job for life. Most people blindly follow in the footsteps of their parents, because that’s been reinforced as normal. They see what everyone else is doing, and think that must be right, so they copy it and adopt it and believe that’s what they have to do too.

And that’s not a problem if they want to stay poor.

But, to be rich, they must start to think differently.

The trouble with selling your time for a salary is there’s an unsmashable glass ceiling lingering over your head. There’s always a standard pay level you ‘learn’ to accept as your limit, and you peg your ‘worth’ to that pay scale. You ‘settle’ for a 2% pay increase that doesn’t keep pace with the cost of living (especially in London).

Why Some People Change the World, and Others Just Survive in the World

Ever wondered why some people change the world and earn 7 figure sums each year, yet most others merely survive in it earning less than $100k per year? It’s great if you do wonder why, because it means you recognise the difference ????

The next step is to fundamentally change the way you think. It’s not easy to do, but with the right motivation it’s 100% possible.

Back in 2009, when we were laid off from our Corporate jobs, we were forced to take stock and consider our career options:

[A] play the job interview game again in the futile hope someone would be willing to hire middle-aged people and pay us what our skills are truly worth, or

[B] go back to school to learn a new skill, then continue to trade our time for money, where there’s no way to scale up our income, and hand over control of our time to our bosses, or

[C] leverage our existing skills as a consultant or a freelancer so at least we control our work schedule and work from home, but continue to trade our precious time for money, or

[D] learn to be entrepreneurial, address our fears surrounding that, then sell other people’s products for big commissions, or sell physical products on Amazon.

You know we opted for [D]. We slowly changed our thinking from employee to entrepreneur to make sure the “I don’t know how” didn’t keep us trapped as wage slaves with a cap on our earnings.

There's a lovely quote by a Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, which says:

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

And for us too, it was scary stepping outside of our comfort zone to learn a new skill, but the rich reward for doing so is far superior to suffering and staying stuck in the status quo.

When starting out in the digital world, you need to choose which business model you prefer to learn – either E-commerce, Affiliate Marketing, or Consulting and Freelancing…

It’s no different than the decision you had to make in your teens about what you wanted to be when you grew up. It can be daunting, but the decision is easy after absorbing the right level of information and understanding.

The key skill Six Figure Mentors teaches affiliate marketers, revolves around human psychology and why people buy. So, you learn how to connect with people to gain their trust – which is kinda second nature for most of us who have friends.

Many people mistakenly think they’ll need tech skills to be successful online, but tools and systems have advanced to the point where most of the ‘tech’ is eliminated. Seriously!

The key skill is sharing your perspective and giving people value.

Want to find an idea? Look for a problem.

Want to help yourself? Help others.

Want to get money? Give value.

Rich people create value for others. Poor people don’t.

Not Sure What Value You Have to Give?

The Six Figure Mentors education will help draw that from you. Every single person on the planet has value to share – you simply need to acknowledge it, overcome those false fears stopping you from blossoming, and get outta your comfort zone – which is why the mindset shift helps.

Gain further insight into what value you have to share in this blog post and video.

And, you don’t have to do it alone – there's an amazing community in Six Figure Mentors of helpful, supportive, like-minded people – quite unlike workplaces we've experienced. Plus, there are regular, interactive training webinars each week (ours included), in addition to all the video training. So, you can interact with real like-minded people, as it can get a bit lonely when it’s just you and your laptop lol.

Six Figure Mentors Business Systems, Education and Community Provide You With EVERYTHING You Need

Want to take your income, business, career, or relationships to the next level? You don't need all the answers up front, or even a crystal-clear plan, but it’s downright crucial you surround yourself with people who’ll mentor you, support you, to help you stay focussed on the actions needed to live your very best life.

The plain fact is – you first need to break the cycle of scarcity thinking to be able to harness that success mindset and honour your true purpose in life. But HOW?

We read books. And continue to read/listen to books. And we highly recommend (insist) you read these 5 books in the order they’re listed:

5 Books To Help You Overcome Old Scarce Thinking Ways

[1] The Science of Getting Rich

By Wallace D. Wattles

This age-old wealth creation bible was first published in 1910 so is written in the ‘flowery’ language of the day – but don’t let that detract from the powerful explanation on how to overcome money oriented mental barriers.

Learn about “the Certain Way of Thinking” which means cultivating a state of mind which has a positive influence over everything in life – not only your financial success, but also emotional intelligence that impacts health, happiness and relationships too.

Either click on the image above to buy it on Amazon, or download a free ebook here.

[2] Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

By Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter

This New York Times bestseller was first published in 1997 and is an autobiography of the learnings Kiyosaki gleaned from his friends’ rich Dad, which he put into practice to become a highly successful investor, able to retire at 47.

This book teaches financial literacy, and the difference between assets and liabilities. Rich people never confuse assets and liabilities, but poor people frequently do. He outlines the steps to becoming financially independent and wealthy – which is the stuff we don’t get taught at school!

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is a MUST READ if you get out of the “rat race”, or learn how the rich get rich, or how the rich approach investing.

Think of this book as your investment in your future wealth.

[3] Think and Grow Rich

By Napoleon Hill

Written in 1937, during the Great Depression, 20 million copies of this wealth handbook have now been sold. It’s the first book we read that changed our belief about the accessibility of success.

Hill took 20 years to study those who had built personal fortunes and developed 13 principles or steps help people establish the desire, faith, and persistence to succeed in any area of life. So, it lays out your journey to wealth by leveraging the power of personal beliefs, and the role they play in personal success. It instils the mindset required to succeed in everything you do.

Either click on the image to buy it on Amazon, or download a free ebook here.

[4] Living A Laptop Lifestyle: Reclaim Your Life By Making Money Online (No Experience Required)

By Greg and Fiona Scott

Of course, we’re biased – but we wrote the book in 2012 to open people’s eyes to the alternatives an online business can provide. If you have a computer, an internet connection, and a passion, you’re already sitting on a mountain of value. We’ve prepared a pragmatic, vital guide on how to leverage all that.

Each chapter is composed to suit the budding entrepreneur in you – to take you from the very basics of getting started, right through cultivating the correct mindset, to generating a sustainable income online.

Here’s what the Grand-daddy Self Development, Brian Tracy, said about Living A Laptop Lifestyle:

“This amazing book shows you how to quickly tap into the technology at your fingertips, increase your income, simplify your life, and achieve all your goals.”

Brian Tracy

[5] You Can Heal Your Life

By Louise Hay

We’ve saved the best till last. Published in 1984, and now sold over 40 million copies in over 30 different languages, this book is a down-to-earth practical guide to help you bash through that negative childhood conditioning.

Many people get angry when we mention they have subconscious blockers about money, so you need to boldly read/listen and apply the strategies in this book because you can plant the seeds of success now and let go of a poor past.

Don’t be like Louise (and us) used to be – she used to refuse to try anything new because she didn’t know how to do it and didn’t want to appear foolish. Learning is making mistakes until our subconscious mind can piece together the picture of success.

Louise teaches you to love yourself, love everything around you, and open your heart to the things you want in your life. Your consciousness led you to where you are now – and your consciousness will either keep you there or lift you up to a better position. It’s up to you.

How To Turn The Tables On Being Poor

If you really and truly want to turn the tables on being poor and cultivate a healthy financial mindset, please read the above 5 books in the order listed. Some are free, and some you’ll need to spend the equivalent of a couple of coffees for – your future is worth it, right?

Finally, know this: we human beings are very resourceful – you included.

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.

Napoleon Hill

We whole-heartedly believe that is true for every human on this planet. They simply need to work on their beliefs and stories they’re telling themselves!

Having read these books, reach out to us to either join Six Figure Mentors or to learn what other actions you can take to get the money rolling in.

Because you’re worth it.

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Are you interested to learn the winning home swap strategy we use to travel the world and stay months on end in stunning locations for zero cost?

Exactly how we lived on Sydney Harbour for 4 months over Christmas, swiftly followed by 3 months right on the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, and 2 months on Pacific Beach, San Diego? (You’ll notice a ‘watery’ theme running through here!)

In other words, how to have a year of summer? Be handy to know, right?

How Desk Slaves Quit The 9-5, Live Anywhere And Join The New Rich

Maybe you’ve read Tim Ferris’s best-selling book ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’. In it, Tim, a New York Times bestselling author, advocates the idea that anyone can abandon a desk jockey job, automate their income stream, and choose a lush lifestyle to enjoy every moment here and now.

Sadly, millions of modern desk slaves sacrifice the MAJOR part of their lives to work in jobs where they’re no longer fulfilled. To reassure themselves they’ve made the best choices in life, they trick themselves into believing they’ve got to work hard to reap the rewards at some point in the future. Maybe that's you?

That was us too!!! We honestly believed or thought as society dictated, that our working life had to be a drudge. We hung onto the illusion that a golden, wealthy retirement was in store for us in the …distant… future.

Which is a mighty gamble, don’t you think?

We were taking that mighty gamble… with NO backstop… until we woke up to the fact we were underappreciated, overstressed and slowly dying at our desks.

Sod That!

Eventually… we thought ‘sod to that’!

It took us 25 long years of corporate servitude to realise there IS a totally different way to earn and living and love life to the max. One aspect of which, we share in this post.

Nowadays, we choose to lead our dream life now, rather than wait until our late 60’s, when we might be past our prime. Makes total sense, doesn’t it?

Now, ‘grabbing life by the horns’ today, doesn’t mean you need millions of dollars – no, no, no – because so-called “unrealistic” things such as travelling the world, and leading a fulfilled life, can be much cheaper than you imagine when you ignore conventional means.

Freedom and flexibility is our major motivator – don’t you too want to be able to do whatever you like, whenever you like? Which, we’ve discovered, only requires a moderate, automatic source of income, which we maintain effortlessly from anywhere in the world.

The good news is, the ideas in “The 4-Hour Work Week” are 100% practical, and totally achievable in this digital age.

As we write this post, we’re being beach bums for 2 months in a spacious apartment right on stunning Pacific Beach, San Diego. We love the sea, having grown up in coastal New Zealand. But we both grew up on the east coast, so we really treasure the glorious Pacific sunsets on the horizon only experienced on the west coast.

Now, you’d think 2 months in a large condo right on the beach would ‘break the bank’, right?

This apartment is listed on Airbnb for US$285 a night in high summer… BUT, we’re not paying a penny for it for 2 months!

That’s 61 days at US$285 a night, which makes a whopping US$17,385 – that's how much we're saving because we’re staying for free.

You’ve got to agree, that's an amazing deal? Right?

It's a stunning location, there’s no road between us and the waves – only lawn and sand.

And you too can do this anywhere on our planet that makes your heart sing!

Because we work online, we literally work from anywhere in the world we have an internet connection – and nine times out of ten we never pay for our accommodation.

So how do we do it?

=> By exchanging homes or doing home swaps with other respectable, worldly, trustworthy, homeowners <=

How We Stumbled Across The World Of Home Exchanges

Prior to the 2012 Olympics hosted in London, we registered our central London apartment on one of the Olympic accommodation websites to leverage the huge influx of spectators. As our business is portable and we can work anywhere, we decided to rent out our home and shift out for a bit.

Sadly…

… we didn't get any nibbles for the 2012 Olympics, because we left it too late to register. BUT, as the seed was planted, and we’d already photographed our home, we registered our apartment on a home swap website instead.

Ever since 2012 we've trotted the globe, staying in stunning locations for months at a time, simply because we leverage our bricks and mortar in Central London by doing home swaps, and we have a mobile business model!

Maybe you’ve watched the 2006 rom-com movie ‘The Holiday’ starring Cameron Diaz and Kate Winslet, where the two love-torn women trade homes in LA and the English countryside. Well, swapping homes is NOTHING to do with swapping lives as in the movie lol!

Watch this Facebook Live Video to Learn More About How To Have Free Accommodation For Months On End Anywhere In The World

What’s the Major Appeal of Doing A Home Swap?

A quick tally of the amazing home trades we have ‘under our belts’ reveals unbelievable value. We used a broad-brush assumption that accommodation costs US$200 per night, on average, particularly given the quality of the destinations we’ve lived in.

Video Footage Capturing Lifestyle Freedom When Doing Home Swaps

7 Tips We’ve Learned From 6 Years of Home Exchanges, Having Saved a Phenomenal US$266,000

As we’ve only had exceptional experiences from swapping homes, maybe you’re interested to learn our strategy to arranging each exchange?

What are our secrets to a successful home swap?

[1] LoveHomeSwap – our Home Swap Site of Choice

There are a few home exchange websites ‘out there’, however, we’ve had super positive experiences with LoveHomeSwap.com

Why LoveHomeSwap?

• It’s as safe as houses
• They verify the ID of all home swap members
• They have a secure website
• And they operate a social sharing site like Airbnb.com

Happily, they have a refer a friend scheme – so when you enter your email address into this ‘Share the Love' page, and sign up to be a full paying member, you'll receive a 25% discount off your first year's membership, and we'll get three months free membership. It's a WIN-WIN!

Membership with LoveHomeSwap starts at £10/US$14 a month (billed annually).

And that’s it.

For unlimited home swaps.

Forever.

Quite an agreeable investment to save US$43k per annum, isn’t it?

There are websites out there which are free to register on, but we value people who prefer to pay for the membership to find a home exchange.

Would you want freebie-seekers staying in your home?

Many of the people registered on LoveHomeSwap are retirees. People who are looking for an economical way of travelling the globe in their golden years, or who want a comfortable safe way to experience London to the max, or simply want a solid base near their grown children who’ve moved abroad and had grandbabies.

We LOVE exchanging with retirees as they aren’t very likely to party, their homes a generally more luxurious, and they’re flexible on dates.

As you can guess, TRUST is a huge factor in why home exchanges work. You’re in their home and they’re in your home. Each party expects the other party to cherish, love, and respect the home as if it was their own.

No money changes hands.

There are no contracts or legal agreements.

And no formalities.

We continue to pay our utility costs, and so do they.

We simply exchange keys, expectation and trust

[2] Critical Review

When you register your property on LoveHomeSwap you upload images of your property. So, take a lot of photos on your phone, but be sure to resize each image file because smartphones take high-density images which create huge file sizes per image.

Pay attention to the detail people want to see, so they get reassurance that your property ticks all the boxes for them. We’ve provided lots of images of our property so people absolutely know what they're getting.

We’re always interested in seeing detailed pictures of the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. We’re looking for modern appliances, a dishwasher, shower, washing machine (in the San Diego condo it’s a large laundry room for the entire condo which isn’t ideal, but at least it allows us to get 2 loads of washing done at once!).

If people don't show photos of their kitchen or bathroom, we’re suspicious!

Check to see everything is clean and tidy with no clutter – if someone can’t be bothered to tidy up and declutter before taking pictures, it means they’re not a good prospect for us. We’ve seen pictures of homes with clothes hanging on the backs of chairs and a ton of stuff strewn over the kitchen counter which ought to have been in a cupboard – we instantly reject them!

Also, check out the location on Google Maps to get a feel for the area. What attractions are close by, is there a supermarket, public transport etc. LoveHomeSwap doesn’t provide an exact address for obvious reasons, but you still get an idea of the environment.

On Google Maps, simply click the little yellow person in the bottom right-hand corner and drag it to the street or area of the prospective property.

Personally, our first rule of thumb is, is the property near or on water?

Recently we had 4 months over Christmas, living on Sydney Harbour in a stunning apartment with a view of the Harbour. Then we had 3 months in Thailand, with the use of two apartments – one on the Chao Phraya River with an incredible view of Bangkok, and the second property was on the beach of the Gulf of Thailand, with stunning sea views and amazingly energetic sunsets.

[3] Cross-Check Suitability Of Dates

As we mostly do simultaneous home exchanges, so we’re in their home whilst they’re in ours, we first find out that our dates are compatible. Generally, retirees are flexible, as are we.

LoveHomeSwap has a visual calendar that shows availability – however not all prospective swappers check out our diary. We often get exchange offers in a period that we’ve blocked out as we’ve already agreed on another exchange.

Also, in our LoveHomeSwap profile, we state we only consider exchanges of 6 weeks or more – although that doesn’t stop people asking to stay a few days for Wimbledon, say. Or who want to swap in Australia for a week when the Rugby World Cup was on – it only takes a day to fly there and another to return!!!

[4] Internet Speed

We’re starting to be more relaxed about internet speed, but as we work online, we message our prospective exchange partners to let them know about our internet priorities.

We usually ask them to check their internet speed on speedtest and have them tell us the upload and the download speed. That site is a mine-field of ads, so we caution people to only click the ‘GO’ button and nothing else!

It’s the upload speed that’s important to us when it comes to running webinars and uploading videos to Youtube. An upload speed of 2 is the absolute minimum we can ‘survive on!

You can also use speedtest.net to check your internet speed on your mobile phone too.

[5] Speak To Co-Exchangers Online

Finally, after checking dates, location, internet, suitability etc we arrange to speak to people via video on Skype or Zoom, make sure we're a good fit for each other. We want to get a feel for them, to see they share the same values as us, to understand their travel plans – and to check they’re not crazy lol.

We also seek assurance that they’re calling from the property they’ve listed on LoveHomeSwap i.e.: that it looks like it does in the pictures.

We ask if they own their home. The exchange we did in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was with two PhD students who landed a research project at the Bank of England – when we asked if we could redirect our mail their address a week before we flew, they said they’d need to ask their landlord!!!

Landlord?

Yup, their apartment was rented – which wasn’t really acceptable to us, but it was too late to pull out.

[6] The Finer Details

You might be messaging back and forth a bit to sort out or verify the finer points like:

• some people want detail about what type of bed we have, to be sure it’s a real bed, and to know the mattress is a Posturepedic type.
• that we have stairs and no lift/elevator
• we say we’ll clear out our drawers and a wardrobe in the bedroom
• we provide public transport info and phone apps we use for taxis and buses
• we sort out dates for Nina, our cleaner, who keeps an eye on our place for us in our absence
• in the past, we’ve exchanged cars too, up until we sold our car in 2015, after being told off twice by the AA (Automobile Association) for letting the battery go flat from lack of use
• if we can redirect our post to their address (usually for exchanges longer than 3 months)
• how to exchange keys – sometimes we arrive the day before they leave their home, else they arrange for someone else to let us in, and once we’ve posted our keys (with no return address on the envelope lol)
• We pack away stuff we treasure, which no-one else will – stuff like family photos, gifts from friends and family, and cheap little things that have priceless meaning to us.

[7] Stay In Touch

Keep in communication and let them know when you’ve booked your flights – it adds comfort and confidence that you’re committed to the exchange.

We've made some good friendships with people we’ve exchanged homes with as we generally share a common outlook on life. It’s easy to get super comfortable in their home and get used to the supermarkets, the environments, favourite restaurants, favourite pubs, favourite bus routes when you know a bit more about them.

How To Have An Endless Summer By Home Swapping

As you’d imagine, we’re absolutely ‘sold’ on doing home swaps with LoveHomeSwap, so if you want to find out more, check out their website.

Maybe you’d love to leverage your home in this way, but you’re thinking:

”yeah but, my property isn’t in Central London!”

Bear in mind that grandparents will travel ANYWHERE to be with their grandbabies. And their kids stray far and wide. So, there's always a chance you can find a good match.

Learn to ‘sell’ your home and ‘promote’ the benefits of your area – tourist attractions, buzzy cafes, pubs, restaurants, what’s close by, walks, gym, golf courses, etc.

Or, maybe you're thinking:

“yeah but, I don't want to go where a fellow home exchanger lives!”

Or:

“yeah, but the dates a fellow home swapper proposes don't work for me!”

Good News! LoveHomeSwap has a points system – which means you can do non-reciprocal home exchanges at different times of the year.

The points system works well if you list a second home or a holiday home with LoveHomeSwap. So it doesn't suit people who list their main residence as we do.

How does the points system work?

So, a LoveHomeSwapper stays in your second home, and you ‘earn' a given number of points for each night they stay (say 150 or 200 points a night). You ‘bank' those points until you find another LoveHomeSwapper's property that's available where and when you want to holiday. Then you ‘spend' your points on that stay. Again, no money changes hands. It's a simple, but flexible, trust-based system.

Remember: the goal is to have an endless summer.

Imagine that?

Happily, for us, there are people who want to be in London in winter.

You simply need to attract the people who want to be where your home is.

Fortunately, LoveHomeSwap will help you out there.

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Location, location, location.

Virtually any book, article, or blog talking about starting a physical, offline, bricks and mortar business, emphasizes the important role location plays in business success.

BUT… what can you do to attract customers when your business is virtual? When it’s online?

Because, you DON’T have any:

• foot traffic or passers-by
• artfully decorated window displays
• way to be a bakery with the aroma of baking bread wafting out your door
• sign spinners to catch people’s attention

So what can you do to attract the right customers?

The solution is to use simple emotion to attract and influence your prospective customers and draw them in through your online front door i.e.: your website.

You’ll also want a point of difference, so you stand out from the crowd amongst all the ‘noise’ and distraction online. Be authentic, be attractive, and be awesome.

Attracting Attention Opens Doors And Charms Customers In

What you have to offer is worth their investment of time and money – otherwise you wouldn’t be in business as an affiliate marketer.

So there’s a million ($’s) reasons why you must leverage how our brains work in order to encourage your website visitors to spend some time (and money) with you.

Ready to start? Sure! You know when you’re onto a good thing.

You’ve always sensed it deep inside, even though you were hesitant to say it out loud. You’ve had times when you’ve fallen short of your goals. Who hasn’t? We sure have. Maybe you’ve even thought of giving up. But you kept falling forward. The fact you’re here reading this proves you’re not a quitter.

So, are these statements true for you?

a. I want to create financial success

b. I am willing to do what it takes to do that (within reason)

c. I am coachable

d. I want to learn ways to make my dreams a reality

Yes? Yes!!

You truly are a winner and we’re about to show you how to grab your audience by the eyeballs so you can show them why they need you.

Here's: 10 Proven Customer Attraction Ideas To Make You More Money

1. Grok Your Audience

You read that first word a couple of times with your face all scrunched up like “Huh?” But, if you’ve read Stranger in a Strange Land, by the incomparable Robert Heinlein, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about.

To grok is to “empathize or communicate sympathetically; to establish rapport.”

You need to learn what motivates the people you want to draw into your online business.

• Before you sell them anything, you need to engage them
• Before you tell them what you have, show them why they need you
• Before you show them why they need you, figure out that answer yourself

“What motivates them?”

“What are their desires?”

“What problems do they need to solve?”

Where do you turn to learn the answers to these questions?

Simply ASK the people in your target market. Surveys will give additional insight into who your visitors are and what their goals are.

Go to forums where your target market is hanging out and see what questions people are asking, and what they want help with.

Go to Amazon and look at reviews on books that are relevant to your niche, and see what people are saying there.

Once you know their stories, what do you do next?

2. Cast Your Reader As The Star

You’ll read every word, because it’s about you

There’s an old joke that ends something like this: “But, I’ve talked enough about me. How about you? What do you think about me?”
You’ll lose the interest and attention of visitors and potential clients if all you do is toot your own horn. My products…my services…me me me! After a while it all sounds like the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon.

Yes, the end goal is to sell your products and be successful. But, be patient and pace yourself. First, let readers see themselves in your content. There’s something irresistible about feeling understood. Then draw them in with your consideration of who they are and what they’re about.

Always use ‘you’ language, and remember to have a spattering of inclusive language to include your reader in the article, like:

• Does that make sense to you too?
• Maybe you, or someone you know, has experienced that too?
• Perhaps you feel the same way?

Do you know what we mean? ????

3. Be Unique!

There’s a TON of competition online – blogs, websites, Facebook pages – which is evidence you’re in a profitable niche.

Your first instinct may be to figuratively create a better mousetrap than your competition OR to openly find fault and unprofessionally slate your competition (we see that a lot in the affiliate marketing niche – which is very underhand and immoral). Hold off a minute. Avoid lowering yourself into a mud-slinging match with them. Simply present yourself in a better, more interesting manner.

Carve out your own attractor factor.

To be outstanding online – Be Unique! (We snapped this poor doggie in Koh Samet, Thailand)

Do you in a way that’s different from the way others are doing them.

Run rings around your competitors and encourage prospective customers to follow.

Being innovative and diverse will garner attention and publicity (we’ll always do a high five for free advertising!), and it’ll increase your chances that other players in your niche will want to work with you too.

Those connections will increase your visibility and your bottom line.

Meek and mild won’t cut it, child!

Stand up. Stand out. Show off and they’ll show up!

Doors will open and customers will flood to you.

For us, our best-selling, triple-award winning book sets us apart – it’s helped us change people’s lives – BUT… we’ve also seen others attempt rip it off (which is infuriating), but proves our competitors are in awe of it to want to copy us. However, copy cats aren’t authentic, and are only doing themselves a dis-service.

4. Engaging Emotion

Sit back and relax because number 4 is full of wisdom, insights and techniques you’ll want to commit to memory and take to heart.

We want this to make sense to you. Humans feel safer when things make sense.

But, most often feelings trump logic (that’s important human psychology to understand as a marketer).

When you want to get people’s attention and draw them in, simply appeal to one of their basic emotions…

What are these basic emotions and how can you use them to benefit your customers and your business?

Love is in the air everywhere you look around

LOVE

Love is a natural fit for fashion, dating, and beauty niches. But, love is also a motivator in gift giving and health-related companies.

Tell success stories about being loving, falling in love, feeling loved, and people will love you lol.

They’ll associate your website with feelings of warmth, security and caring.We’ve been married for nearly 30 years now, so happily portray ourselves as a loving, caring, middle-aged couple – hence our branded image…

ANGER

What makes your target audience furious?

Talk about it.

Tell them why they have every right to be angry.

Stir them up, then tell them how you can help make it right.

What pisses us off most is people who give up too quickly. They stumble at the first hurdle, think online business isn’t easy, and never really give themselves permission to keep failing forward. It’s sooo sad to witness, as we know they have what it takes to start and grow a thriving online business – they simply need to trust themselves.

This post was written as a bit of a rant to express our anger and people’s lack of resourcefulness:

>>How To Be Smart In A World of Dumb Opportunity Seekers <<

SHOCK

We’re not talking about shock for the sake of sensationalism. That’ll turn people off and send them packing. You want to shock them and show them how they can take action. This is a bit different from the “anger” aspect.

With shock, you are making visitors aware of a problem or injustice and giving them an outlet for their outrage.

We use shocking numbers and rapid pace of change in this article:

>> How Safe Is Your Job From The Bots <<

FEAR

Headlines like “The three ways you put your life at risk every day” and “Have you protected your family in case of an emergency?” grab attention.

However, be super sure you have answers to show customers how to alleviate the problems you highlight. You don’t want to bring them in and then have them look elsewhere for solutions. Make a clear connection between the need at hand and what you offer to help fill that need.

We generally use the fear of missing out (FOMO) in our emails as a real motivator to take action.

JOY

Can you read that word and not start to hum Ode To Joy?

Spread joy in your virtual world. Smiles and joy are contagious.

People love to share pictures and sayings that have a positive vibe, so include those attention getters on your site and Facebook page, and they’ll be shared over and over.

Viral brings more traffic, more people, and more sales.

HOPE

As the story goes, when Pandora’s Box was opened, and all the evils of the world were released, all that was left was hope. People need hope when things are dark. Be that light of hope and your visitors will grasp onto it and to what you have to offer.

This article gives hope – in that ordinary people like us can take consistent action and escape the rat race:

>> How To Actually Have Your Cake And Eat It Too <<

HUMOUR

According to a study based on a review of the 100 million most shared articles, the ones that caused laughter, joy and amusement accounted for nearly half of the total. Make people laugh, make them happy, and make them joyful, and you’ll make yourself well known.

DISGUST

There must be something the people you’re targeting get really disgusted about. Find out what it is and write about it. Get their attention by agreeing with them and find a way to address the problem.

We’re disgusted by scam artists and ponzi schemes – which prompted this post:

>> 7 Warning Signs When You’re Confronted With A Ponzi Scheme <<

SADNESS

It’s okay to make people sad IF you offer them a way to make a difference.

The emotion of sadness can be used very successfully in fundraising campaigns – and in meaningful videos like this (tears well in our eyes every time we watch it as Fiona’s Grandad was blinded in World War II)

ANTICI…PATION

Are you about to launch a new product?

Do you have a seasonal sale coming up soon?

Do you have a new e-book to release?

Capitalize on the countdown.

Stir up some excitement.

We use countdown timers to good effect in our emails…

PRIDE

People are proud of so many things. Their accomplishments, their heritage, their children, their homeland, their local community. They’re proud of their sports teams (except when the games take them back to that anger category!).

Shine a spotlight on what instills pride in the people you want to reach, and write stories that’ll endear them to you.

This was a proud moment for us – taken in Kanchanaburi, near The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Thailand

NOSTALGIA

Those were the days, my friend…

We never appreciate the good old days until they are long gone. But then, we can’t get enough of the memories. Appeal to those feelings of nostalgia and you will grab their attention in a big way.

Here’s a blast from our past – every kid from 70’s New Zealand can recall every single word from this Kentucky Fried commercial:

5. We’re Story Tellers at Heart

Our need for stories is built into our makeup. Stories go right to the emotional center of our brains, cutting through usual rational thinking filters. Long before our history was documented in written form, stories were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.

Stories catch attention and hold it.

Stories make us want more. What next? What happens then?

Put your message in story form and capture the interest of your visitors by bypassing their conscious ‘sales’ radar.
Start using stories to sell.

Put your message in story form and capture the interest of your visitors by bypassing their conscious ‘sales’ radar.

6. Lead with the Unexpected

This feeds right into the emotion of surprise we talked about earlier. Say something contrarian or controversial. Say something that’s a misconception and prove why it’s incorrect.

Maybe we could have begun this piece with something like “Here’s why emotion plays no part in marketing.”

We received an email recently from a famous marketer, Neil Patel of Quicksprout and Kissmetrics. It read: “Why you should use boost posts on Facebook”. We KNOW and TEACH that boosting posts on Facebook is a very specific strategy, which needs to be executed in a certain way to be cost effective – so we wondered what on earth Neil was on about – and opened his email – and clicked through to his blogpost. Of course, the blogpost wasn’t condoning boosting posts on Facebook – but he’d succeeded in grabbing our attention and diverting us to his blog post for 5 minutes.

This article is an example of blog post on the same topic as this one, but using a contrarian approach by leading with a famous explorer:

>> Ernest Shackleton’s Top 3 Tips for Attracting Customers <<

7. Grab attention with your headline

It’s the first thing people see. If it isn’t great, they may not go any further. Don’t miss the opportunity to bring the traffic to your door because your headline is, well, sad and boring.

Spend time reading headlines other people wrote. Which ones catch your eye? Which ones have you hovering your mouse and clicking? And why?

Think about your target audience. Know your audience well. What’ll work for them? What emotions do you want to evoke in them?

What’ll move them?

Start a swipe file of the best headlines that moved you to click, and revise them to suit your needs. Now we’re absolutely not advocating plagiarism! Just inviting you to use the best as your guide. It’s what great copywriters do.

And use this handy tool to analyse your headlines to tweak and perfect them.

Search Google for “proven headline swipe”

8. Write as the crow flies

remain sharply focused to deliver one key message in your online content

Say what you mean. Mean what you say. Be direct. Don’t start out by telling your reader about this great recipe for apple pie if it isn’t going to show up later in your story.

Promise to offer something of value. Build on that, focus on it, deliver on it in your content.

Bottom line: remain sharply focused to deliver one key message in your online content.

Every element of your content – headline, sub-headers, words, images, videos – ought to work together and deliver your single main point, as you promised.

9. Leverage Recognition

Want other websites to divert attention (and traffic) to you and your offers?

Start by focusing attention on them! People love recognition. Significance is one of the six core human needs we have. (The other five are certainty, variety, love and connection, growth and contribution.)

When you want another website to link to yours – write about that site. Send them a request, and ask if you can feature them in a post on your site. Stroke their egos bit, but not in a deceptive or phony way. Write about people, products and websites you truly find valuable. Remember, links from major websites means way more traffic or website visitors for you.

When we first published Living A Laptop Lifestyle, we approached various targeted authority sites to see if they would publish a review of our book. As they’re always looking for topical content for their followers, most readily agreed.

Click the image to link to a review of Living A Laptop Lifestyle published in FlyBe inflight magazine:

Approach targeted authority sites to see if they'll publish your content with a link back to your website

10. Inject Interaction

Have interaction on your website. Make it fun.

Engage your visitors. Let them do something more than read or watch.

Give them choices of ways to participate – encourage them to comment, share, take a quiz, or play a game.

It’s all about helping your website visitors make micro-commitments – the more micro-commitments they make, the more obliged they’ll be to buy.

Help your website visitors make micro-commitments to build the obligation to buy
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11. Give more than you promise

We promised you 10 ways. Fancy a bonus extra?

Use a variety of media on your site. People learn in different ways, as in, they have different modalities of learning. They’re drawn to a variety of styles and methods. For example, Fiona prefers to skim text to take information on board, rather than being ‘held hostage’ to watch a video, yet Greg’s more than happy to watch a video. We’re all different!

Make the most of our human qualities and provide your prospective customers with a mixture of audio, video, and imagery (holiday snaps, cartoons, graphics).

Hedge your bets on a variety of numbers on the roulette wheel and you stand a better chance of being a winner. In other words, offer your visitors a number of ways to access your content and you and your visitors are winners too!

Still With Us?

Phew! There you go. A box full of emotional tools just for you.

Which will you use first?

What excites or intrigues you most?

What stories will you tell your visitors?

How will you draw attention to all you have to offer?

We can’t wait to hear back from you about what works for you. We’d love to hear your stories

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Once we had a neighbor, Susie, who wanted to grow her own vegetables. She bought brightly colored packets of seeds and small tomato and pepper plants. She proudly showed us her pristine matching gardening gloves and kneeling pad. Bags of fertilizer were piled up in the yard. And they stayed there basking in the sun for…ever!

The problem was… Susie loved the idea of harvesting her own fresh produce, but hated getting her hands dirty.

She was a wanna-be-gardener.

She had everything she needed to grow a bountiful garden EXCEPT the motivation to get started.

Sadly, we’ve discovered there are far too many people waltzing around in the digital world with amazing ideas they know can bring in millions. They get all the “accessories” of business like fancy business cards, pens with a clever slogan (we got a batch of coffee mugs with our logo plastered all over them before we even earned our first dollar online – so were guilty of this), an eye-catching ‘architecturally’ designed website.

But… they get stuck in their tracks and go no further than those bags of fertilizer in Susie’s yard.

Then there are the hordes of freebie-seekers who rightly understand they don’t need to have the latest whiz-bang idea because they can sell other people’s stuff for profit – BUT they misguidedly believe they can build and grow an online business by investing the square root of bugger all! We kinda understand where the notion comes from, because Google Search and Google Accounts are free, and Facebook and Twitter are free, but no business is ever free. All businesses require some form of investment – and it’s naïve not to spot that.

And then there are the dreamers who fantasize about running their own business, being their own boss and establishing their own work schedule. They ask a million questions to get every ‘i’ dotted and every ‘t’ crossed, but simply don’t implement the steps to turn that dream into reality. They’re not ready to take calculated risks. Because it sure takes a lot more than visualization and positive thinking to be an entrepreneur!

All these people are commonly known as Wantrepreneurs.

How Do You Morph From Wantrepreneur To Entrepreneur? What Are The 7 Success Secrets…

Having been Wantrepreneurs ourselves back in 2009, and being our own worst bosses (we wrote about it in Living A Laptop Lifestyle)… we KNOW what to look for – we see the tell-tale signs and recognise all the hallmarks of wanna-be online business owners.

So, if you're swanning round sporting that Wantrepreneur badge, we've put together this useful guide to help you bin that image today:

There are seven definite success secrets you must learn and do:

1: Dismiss this myth

We didn’t get this right!

When we were ousted by Corporate Britain, we started to look for new jobs, but during that soulless period of ‘playing the game', we decided ‘enough was enough' and opted to start our online business from scratch. We believed the myth… that Entrepeneurs risk all, go all in, jump in boots ‘n all. Wrong!

In his book ‘Originals: How Non-Conformists Move The World', Adam Grant refers to research carried out in the US from 1994 to 2008, which studied 5,000 people in the 20-50 age range, who switched from Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur.

The outcome?

Entrepreneurs who kept their backup income, their existing business, or their day job, had 33% higher chance of success than people like us who quit their jobs at the outset. You'd want those odds in your favour, wouldn't you?

The reason why is, they have a backstop while they manage the transformation. So they treat their new business venture as a second stream of income.

Testament to this fact is that most of the 1,000+ people we've personally coached to build their online business, have done so whilst holding down a full time job. Quite simply, it's a more calculated risk.

2: Prioritize with your eyes on the prize

A Wantrepreneur puts their energy and finances into the things that might make them look like a business person. The website, the logo, all the outer trappings. These are the things they’ll need… EVENTUALLY – but not at the outset.

True entrepreneurs know it’s important to provide a service or a product which fills a need, one where people will buy.

Your primary concern is to solve a problem for a customer, because your goal is to make sales. So, your initial focus will be to:

• Understand your market and the demand for your product offer
• Know the pain points your prospective customers experience, and
• Learn how to ‘speak’ to your customers in their language, to help alleviate their problem

Of course, you’ll need that website – but you won’t need all the fancy bells and whistles from the get-go.

Without a doubt, you’ll also need an excellent marketing budget to attract targeted customers and build an email database – which is the pivital thing freebie-seeker Wantrepreneurs don’t understand!

3: Read, take heed, and succeed

Another area Wantrepreneurs get bogged down in is the difference between thinking about doing something and actually doing it. Yes, visualization can be very effective. Reading books is important; you’ll find wisdom and solid advice in many of them. But, if you don’t do something after you read the last page, or watch the training video, NOTHING changes for you!

If you’re hungry and just read cookbooks, your belly will remain empty.

When you purchase that gym membership, but don’t work out, you’ll still be all soft and wobbly.

If you read about becoming a success and don’t put in any effort to build your online business, your bank account still will be empty.

People will grow weary of hearing endless talk about your “business”.

Results, and only results, will set tongues wagging.

Imagine your Uncle Bob buys the latest shiny black SUV with all the trimmings. He polishes and buffs it till he sees his face shining back in the reflection. But, he never fills the fuel tank, so it just sits in the drive. It doesn’t go anywhere. And neither does Bob. That face in the reflection is the face of a Wantrepreneur!

4: Don’t be afraid of being afraid

Some of the biggest success stories encompass stories of big failures. Oprah was fired from a job as a TV reporter. The Diary of Anne Frank, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Catcher in the Rye, and Gone with the Wind, were all rejected time after time. Mark Cuban was fired from his job as a computer salesperson, and never again answered to a boss.

Wantrepreneurs and entrepreneurs view risk differently.

Wantrepreneurs focus on failure and freeze.

Entrepreneurs view failure as a temporary road block to push through – as a learning experience. Entrepreneurs learn from those road blocks and use them as sign posts on their journey to success. The face the fear and do it anyway – risk looking a fool with zero concern of how others may (but likely don’t) judge!

Jay Kubassek, serial entrepreneur and Co-Founder of Digital Experts Academy, always talks about building the plane while flying it. In other words, a business idea or concept doesn’t need to be perfect, or even finished, before taking it to market. So it pays not to be a perfectionist, to execute an idea, and make tweaks and adjustments later.

5: Move it then prove it, not the other way around

Wantrepreneurs refuse to step out until everything is exactly the way they think it should be. They want proof of perfection, in funding, timing, plans. They need 50 million answers before risking a dollar – even if it’s a calculated risk. They’re so deep into the finest details they can’t see the big picture.

Real entrepreneurs hit the ground running. Yes, they do their due diligence but they’re adaptable and clever. Whatever it takes is what they’re ready to do. They will bootstrap their company, they’re RESOURCEFUL, and find ways to get the funds they need.

Like a champion high diver, they’re prepared and ready when they’re poised at the edge of the diving board. Wantrepreneurs go back and forth and freeze, never to make a splash in the world of online business.

6: Have a strong will, so you will!

In an average business week, you’ll face disappointments, stress, pressure and doubt.

That kind of week is not for the weak.

Wantrepreneurs might want to be successful but lack the will to fight through the inevitable challenges of business. They always have the exit door in sight.

Entrepreneurs go into business with their eyes, hopes and hearts wide open. Failure may be hanging around the fringe, but that doesn’t stop them. A true entrepreneur may see a detour sign but never an exit. They succeed because they refuse to accept anything less from themselves.

Entrepreneurs understand that online business is like a roller coaster – they’re strapped in for the ride, a downward disappointment will lead to an upward success, and when they’re in a corkscrew spiral, they know they’ll pull out.

7: Never presume

As humans, we generally like to be right all the time, don't we? (ha ha – case in point). It takes a lot to accept personal blame for being wrong. We take it as a chink in our armour.

As a result, Wantrepreneurs presume TOO MUCH. They think they know better. They're not inclined to test the market to determine what their prospective customers actually believe.

Sadly, we see this behavour a lot of the people we personally coach. They see another marketer doing something on Facebook, say, so presume if they're doing it, it must be working and it must be OK to do it too. Wrong again!

On the other hand, Entrepreneurs know they have to do their research, to test and tweak everything they can in their marketing, and never presume they're right. They're also quick to ask for help, don't attempt to reinvent the wheel, and recognise and accept their own strengths and weaknesses

Ditch the Innner Wantrapreneur

Do you see yourself in any of the Wantrepreneur traits? We’ve all been there. But, we don’t have to stay there.

Focus on the first four letters of that word. Want. How much do you want success? How big is your driving motivation? When you’re ready and willing to go for it, simply:

Dismiss the myth.

Keep your eyes on the prize and prioritize.

Hit the gas and hit the road.

Stare failure in the eye and do not blink.

Move forward with confidence and conviction.

Embrace:

‘will' not ‘won’t'

‘when’ not ‘if’'

‘do’ not ‘try’ (As Yoda says: “Do, or do not, there is no try”)

The language you use ‘on yourself’ is SO powerful.

And… test and tweak till the cows come home!

Then you’re ready to morph from Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur. Take that good idea and take it to market, or embrace affiliate marketing and leverage other people’s products for profit. Dedicate yourself to break down barriers and build your business. Turn those failures into fertilizer, till that soil, plant hope and smart work, nurture your prospective customers, and reap the harvest.

It’s an immense joy for us to see others discovering how life can be so much grander and far more rewarding than they ever believed possible in this digital age. Your participation is valuable, others will benefit from it, and you’ll experience such joy too. Your world will expand and the world around you will improve because you dared to take brave steps.

If you’re up for taking the first brave steps, and are ready to roll up your sleeves, work smart, seek help, and don’t re-invent the wheel – the easiest entrepreneurial path to take is to promote other people’s products for profit – and, in our opinion, the very best training and support to learn how to do that is provided by Six Figure Mentors and it’s sister company, Digital Experts Academy.

Six Figure Mentors has all the education needed to be entrepreneurial. They also have all the mindset guidance online entrepreneurs need, and they have the community of like-minded entrepreneurs to support the ups and downs of the roller coaster that is online business.

So, over to you now you're armed with our 7 success secrets. Go do it!

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Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly.

They lit a fire in the kayak…

… it sank – proving once and for all you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

Ha ha.

Joking aside, we don't know about you, but we were raised to get a good education, build a respectable lifelong career, and work for the man for the remainder of our days

It seems ‘normal' doesn't it?

It's how society and the education system condition us to think, act, be.

But, unfortunately, it's fundamentally flawed!

Now you might think you've been making wilful choices since your first day on this planet, BUT…

The status quo in society has been ‘working on you' since drawing your very first breath, sculpting the way you view the world, and dictating ‘normal', acceptable ways of thinking, doing and being.

You can't avoid it. We didn't avoid it. Heck, we didn't even realise there was a status quo when we were STUCK in it!

Like us – your parents/guardians likely had the biggest impact on you, including where you lived, what school you went to, and what career you chose. Simply because most parents reciprocate the way they were brought up themselves.

Hence perpetuating the status quo, limiting your choices to only acceptable ones, and squashing your ‘out-the-box' thinking and creative spark forever.

Status Quo Control Stops Here

History can't be changed – you can't roll back the clock on how you were brought up, where you were educated, and what standard choices you've made to date!

BUT… you CAN ‘wake up' right now to the fact you don't have to accept the status quo any longer, from this day forward.

That was the EPIPHANY we had in 2009.

And it's a realization you're likely having too, seeing as you're already aware there are alternatives to the pervasive status quo of working for the man for the rest of your life – or else you wouldn't be reading this post.

So you’re likely interested in generating revenue around your individual lifestyle? As opposed to putting your life on hold for 40, 50, 60+ hours a week while you endure the bump and grind of employment, to provide for the loved ones you don’t have time to be with?

Can you see the irony in that?

Maybe you’re interested in being able to live anywhere you fancy while earning a good income?

Or how about having more time freedom to do your own thing?

We're here to share with you an entrepreneurial way to be self-renewed, self-fulfilled and self-reliant. To get unstuck from that career which probably doesn't make you bounce out of bed any more, or to unchain you from that business which works you like a slave, or to build up a truly comfortable nest egg so you can fully enjoy your Golden Years.

In short – to have your cake and eat it too.

To explain how you can actually have your cake and eat it too, and to help you believe it’s within your capability, we've recorded a brand new three-part video training series for you, with the very obvious title:

How To Actually Have Your Cake And Eat It Too

What we mean by ‘have your cake and eating it too', is to earn a sustainable income but also have the time freedom, flexibility and lifestyle to enjoy it to the full.

That's exactly what we do and there's honestly nothing special about us, so if little old Greg and Fiona Scott can do it, we believe anyone else can do it too.

Click the video below to watch and learn:

As we explain in the video, your mission is to build a lifestyle business, which is an online business where you earn a healthy substantial income, working only a few hours a week.

An online lifestyle business leaves you completely free to travel the world and work anywhere in there's an internet connection. That's what we mean by ‘how you can have your cake and eat it too'.

Think about being in a job where you're working for somebody else, probably working all the overtime in the world just to get a one or two percent pay increase at the end of the year, and possibly a bonus. BUT… your pay is CAPPED. Maybe you'll get a one percent rise this year, maybe two percent next year if you're lucky, yet you have to work many, many hours for that puny perk.

You might have to keep doing all those training courses your employer says to do as well, for very little gain.

Because…

There's a ceiling, or a limit to what you can earn, because your time is a limited resource.

You must realise you don't have any leverage of your time.

The difference with running an online business is you're not capped on how much you can earn, as in, there's no glass ceiling and you don't have to work any harder to earn a small amount of money than you do earn a large amount of money. Does that make sense?

The big difference between an online business and a job is: LEVERAGE.

Leverage in a work environment is restricted because your employer is paying YOU to personally perform the services you were contracted to.

Also, what eventually happens is, you become under-appreciated in your job, which leads to not being fulfilled or passionate about what you're doing any more in your job/career. How do we know? Because that's exactly what happened to us.

What's The Solution Then?

It's not rocket science – sell products instead of your time!

We leverage other people's products and promote them on the internet. It takes a tiny proportion of our time to make our business work, week in and week out, to earn a sustainable healthy income.

Let's give you some numbers as an example:

We promote a product that pays us a commission of $1,000 per sale (we're talking in US dollars because that's the currency of the internet). If we wanted to replace an annual income of $100,000 then it's simple maths to know we need to sell one hundred units of that particular product that pays us a $1,000 commission per sale to make $100,000 income per annum.

That’s a simple model, however, you need to advertise, so there are advertising costs to account for, which are the largest cost of doing business online.

In an online business, your advertising is vital. There's other little bits and pieces that add up to $20-$50 per month, but your advertising is by far the biggest chunk of your overhead costs.

Back to the example above, in order to make those one hundred sales to earn $100,000 commission per annum, we need to stack on another thirty sales to cover advertising costs. Advertising costs for a year could easily be $30,000 – therefore we need to sell 130 of those units to earn $130,000 commission, less our advertising costs of $30,000, leaves us with $100,000 net profit per annum. Make sense?

There's another nice little bonus here too. When you're self-employed, or working for yourself, you have to put money aside for the tax man, but at least it's not grabbed out of your pay packet every month like it is for employees. (But we're not going to go into that as we're not in the business of giving tax advice and aren't authorised to do so either).

Hopefully, we've explained the numbers clearly to you: so to earn a net profit of $100,000 per annum you’ll sell 130 units that pay $1,000 commission each, less $30,000 advertising costs. How long does it take us to do that? It's a few hours a week, now we're up and running.

Quit Trading Time For Money

You've got to acknowledge it's a completely different business model from trading your time for money to earn the income your employer pays you. The added bonus of this lifestyle type business is: you can be where on earth you want to be. That could be at home, from a coffee shop, or on the beaches of the world.

Hopefully that helps you begin to understand how you can have your cake and eat it too.

You need: LEVERAGE

Next, click to watch this video:

Harness Residual Income

We talked about quitting exchanging your time for money so you can scale your income by running a thriving, healthy, successful, online business. BUT – you're probably wondering how to do that, exactly?

One of the mechanisms you can leverage is called residual income.

A prime example of residual income is our book Living a Laptop Lifestyle, which we wrote once (obviously) but we get paid every time a copy of our book is sold.

We wrote the book in 2012, but every time we make a sale (which still happen like clockwork) we get paid month in month out. Which is a perfect example of residual income. You do the work once, and get paid many times over for that one input of effort.

There are lots of different ways to earn residual income, Living a Laptop Lifestyle is a prime example, but you don't have to write a book in order to earn repeat income… because that's where affiliate marketing comes in.

Affiliate Marketing Explained

You're probably aware anybody in the world can register for free as an Associate of Amazon, which is what Amazon call their affiliates. As Amazon is the largest, most popular, affiliate marketplace on the internet today, it’s got a TON of trust, and is a reputable business model.

When you're an Amazon Associate you can promote our book, Living a Laptop Lifestyle, because it's listed on Amazon – and earn a commission on every sale you make.

As an affiliate for Amazon you can promote any product whatsoever, and when you rinse and repeat the process, you'll build up a healthy sustainable income selling other people's products.

And there's more than just Amazon! There are thousands of affiliate marketplaces out there where you can pick and choose products you're passionate about, in niches you're passionate about.

In a nutshell, promoting other people's products so you make a commission from every sale is what affiliate marketing is all about.

What Skills You'll Learn

It's all well and good talking about affiliate marketing – but what tasks do you have to do to make it work?

Good question!

There are ONLY THREE THINGS to do when building your affiliate marketing business, and they all start with the letter ‘B' so they're easy to remember.

Funnily enough, we call them:

The Three B’s of Online Business – ha ha

[1] The First B is to ‘Build Your List'

Your list will be a database of prospective customer email addresses, who'll be people with a particular problem you can help solve with the affiliate products you offer them.

In other words, you’ll gather email addresses from people who visit your website, so you can stay in touch with them by email, and hopefully encourage them to visit your website again to consider what you have to offer there.

WHY is building your email list or email database sooooo important?

Let's assume you pay to advertise the website where you promote a high-ticket/high value/top tier affiliate product, so hordes of targeted people visit it. Those visitors will read a bit, dither a bit, get distracted, then click away… because that’s what people do. They hardly ever buy anything off you first-pop. (Consider your own online shopping habits!)

They click away empty handed, never to revisit again!

You’ve wasted ALL your advertising spend. You may as well have flushed that money down the loo.

You KNOW your website visitors have an interest in what you offer simply because you targeted them based on related interests they have, and they willingly clicked to visit your website in the first instance. However, if you've got no way to stay in touch with those people, no way to share more information with them, and no way to pique their interest about your solution to their problem – you’ve got no business! Seriously!

The solution?

Encourage your targeted website visitors to willingly add their email to your email database list, by offering them something of value in exchange for their email address.

You may’ve received the free seven-part video training series we share, which teaches the principles of building an online business and reveals another exciting concept each and every day for 7 days. That free training is a fair exchange for your email address, so we stay in touch with you.

The great thing about building an email list of targeted people with a problem you have the solution for is: you can market to them – repeatedly. What that means is, you pay once (to the advertising platform) to get people interested, then market to those people over and again to offer them whatever products you think are relevant to the problem you targeted them with in your ads.

[2] The Second B is to ‘Blog’

Write/collate content that’s valuable to prospective customers. Provide information to answer their queries. Tell stories that relate to solving their problems.

The reason you blog is to provide valuable information for the prospective customers you have on your list, who you've got there by doing paid advertising. To build a relationship with those people, you educate them, inform them, inspire them, entertain them, and promote to them – all by way of your blog posts.

Let's say you're building a list of people who are interested in weight loss. You’d blog about weight loss, about healthy foods to eat, and how they can remember to put their knife and fork down after each mouthful so they eat slower and feel full sooner. In other words, provide information to help people make an informed decision about buying your affiliate weight loss offers.

In summary – provide helpful information to solve problems for people, to build trust in you as an authority, and to endear prospective customers to accept your recommendation that your affiliate offer is the exact solution they're looking for.

Like a Tripod or a Three-Legged Stool

The third and final B of online business is the one that connects and locks those first two together. Like a tripod or a three-legged stool, you need to have all three B’s in place for your business to have a solid foundation, to stand up correctly.

[3] The Third B is to Do ‘Broadcast Emails’

The phrase ‘broadcast’ is simply terminology used by Aweber, the trusted autoresponder we recommend. It simply means a fresh email you write and send to your prospective customers to pique their interest in one of your blog posts.

So, the purpose of a broadcast email is to get the people on your list, to read a specific blog post so they learn and grow. Your aim is to get their eyeballs on your educational, informational, inspirational, entertaining, and promotional blog posts.

When you think of a new blog post as like a blockbuster movie, then your broadcast email is like the movie-trailer to that movie. It serves to pique the interest of the people on our list, to create curiosity, and to ‘dangle a helpful carrot’ in front of their noses.

A broadcast email the functionality that gets the people on your list, who you get there by doing paid advertising to build your list, to read your blog posts. So a broadcast is the connection between your list and  your relationship building blog posts/content.

There you have it – the 3 B’s of Online Business!

Keep It Simple

Run your affiliate marketing business by honing the three B’s of online business. There are only three money producing tasks which make up your marketing… which is why it's a lifestyle business, because there’s nothing else to do!

Therefore, the only three skills to master are:

=> Build Your List by doing paid advertising on third party ad platforms

=> Blog, or Video Blog, or create valuable, helpful, objection busting content

=> Broadcast Emails to get the people on your list to digest your valuable content so they get to know you, like you, and trust your recommendations are a perfect solution for them.

The MOST MAGICAL FACT with these 3B’s – you only do the work once, and each output keeps working for you again and again and again.

That's why you easily scale up your results.

Once a paid ad starts working, you leave it humming along in the background for months, continually building your list on autopilot.

Once a blogpost is published live on the internet, you continue to reference it repeatedly.

Once you write a broadcast email people love, you re-use it again and again.

**Leveraging your outputs in this way, provides time freedom, which means Lifestyle.

BUT… it gets better, because there’s more to Leverage than only your outputs…

Now, click to watch this video:

Three further points of leverage to ensure your online business is a lifestyle business are:

[1] Leverage Other People’s Products

Rocket Scientist's need not apply. Nor people with big brilliant ideas about what to sell online. Because neither matter in Affiliate Marketing.

Let someone else think through all that.

Leave the creativity and hard graft of pulling a product together for others to do.

Leverage other people's products to sell, and receive a commission for each sale or referral you make.

Sit back and let the product creator take care of:

• delivery of the product
• payment handling and secure merchant accounts
• customer support queries

You don't need to do a scrap of any of it, yet you'll still receive a referral commission for finding that customer.

Couldn’t be easier!

We fell in love with the simplicity of the affiliate model – that, and the fact it saved us having to rack our brains for clever ideas

[2] Leverage Other People’s Skills (particularly sales skills)

We make sales 24/7, all around the globe, and we’ve never had any sales training whatsoever.

We make sales even when we're not at our laptops.

We make sales when we’re sleeping, flying, hiking, skiing, scuba-diving!

How that possible? Well, we don't actually make the sales ourselves. We leverage a sales team who are trained in sales and who manage customer conversions for us without us having to lift a finger.

The sales team works around the clock, irrespective of what we’re doing. We leverage their skills and time, so we're free to do what pleases us most.

Imagine not having to negotiate your own sales!

Don’t know about you, but it’s a huge thing for us because we're not sales people, we’ve never had any training (well, apart from writing work resumes and CV’s), and we don't know how to sell. We simply have someone else manage that for us

[3] Leverage Other People’s Tools

We talk about automation a lot – because automation frees up your time.

Online tools aid automation. They make it easier for you to have tasks happening on autopilot.

So, here are some of the tools we love most:

AWEBER email database autoresponder – it works on autopilot for us 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Yes, that means we can be wherever we chose, because we have the piece of mind our autoresponder is operating in the background.

Another piece of software we absolutely adore is ROBOFORM. Working online means having a ton of passwords and login details – Roboform not only remembers every single password it also securely remembers the website the login details relate to. Roboform saves us hours every month.

Some of the people we coach keep handwritten notebooks with all their passwords in – and it takes f o r e v e r for them to log into their affiliate marketing platform. We sit there drumming our fingers on the table… w a i t i n g ! When, with Roboform, it’s a one click wonder.

The final suite of tools we couldn’t do without is offered by Six Figure Mentors – it's DIGITAL BUSINESS LOUNGE.

Imagine easily getting a website set up and live online in a matter of a few clicks! Digital Business Lounge makes that possible.

Digital Business Lounge also includes lead capture page software, professional graphics creator software, link shortener software, and all the tools you need to operate a business online.

The suite of tools within Six Figure Mentors’ Digital Business Lounge is unrivalled anywhere else. We, quite simply, couldn't get by without them. Which means you don't need to reinvent the wheel and build these tools yourself!

So there you have it!

Having Your Cake And Eating It Too quite simply involves LEVERAGE

Leverage affiliate marketing and residual income.

Leverage other people's time, creativity and expertise.

Leverage other people's products so you don't have to have any wild crazy ideas yourself.

Leverage other people's tools – particularly automation tools, so you free up time to do what makes your heart sing – that’s what a lifestyle business is ALL about.

Having your cake and eating it too is the ability to create a healthy, sustainable income online, BUT still have the time to enjoy it too.

Which ISN'T the way it works in traditional employment.

When we ‘worked for the man' we put in 60 hours a week for an annual salary – the more hours we spent in the office, our true hourly rate was slashed, because a fixed income, divided by more hours, means a lower hourly rate. That's simply NUTS as there's no way to scale it up.

Here's the NOT FUNNY part – it took us 25 years to work that out!

Which is why we're keen to explain to you in the hope it doesn't take 25 years for the penny to drop for you too.

To get unstuck from that career which probably doesn't make you bounce out of bed any more, or to unchain you from that business which works you like a slave, or to build up a truly comfortable nest egg so you can fully enjoy your Golden Years – it all starts with learning how to leverage other people's products, time, skills, expertise, tools in the booming affiliate marketing industry.

If learning such life-changing skill is of interest to you too, we highly recommend this exact same education which got us started. It's up to you whether you take back control of your time and life, however this absolutely works for us – it's transformed our lifestyle and allows us to travel the world for 9 months each year.

Are you ready?

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Ugh, it’s happened again.

Another hypey, audaciously brazen, trumped up headline!

You’ve seen them. They offer boundless riches. Imply it’s promiscuously effortless. Can be achieved in next-to-no-time.

Something like:

• Make One Million Dollars in One Day
• How to invest $7 to be $10,000 richer… without risking a cent
• This sneaky little trick netted $382,837.61 for an unemployed bus driver

The reality is…

… they grab your attention, perhaps even have you hovering to click, but uncertainty rears it’s ugly head because something doesn’t quite ring true. Right?

You can’t help thinking: ‘Really!?’

Your rip-off radar’s triggered. You wonder if it’s too good to be true?

You’re wisdom is borne from personal experience, not from speculation.

Just like us.

It doesn’t serve anyone by writing spectacularly misleading headlines/claims/offers like that. Most people are wise to them nowadays. People can sniff a lie, a mile off.

“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.”

Winston Churchill

Sadly :(, people aren’t so alert when reading online reviews which openly scathe a competitor’s product.

Hopefully, you haven’t seen such ‘false’ reviews – where the article offers to provide a ‘balanced’ assessment, but uses emotive language like ‘whopping’ or ‘prohibitive’ or, dare we say it, ‘scam’, and the article is quite one-sided or completely imbalanced.

But, guess what?

Articles like that are written for the single deceitful purpose of snaring unsuspecting ‘victims’ into their clutches. Which is misleading, dishonest, and mal-intentioned.

A word of warning:

There are many slimy underhand marketers ‘out there’ who publish false reviews online, which are NOT based on first-hand experience, and are NOT written with the intention of providing an honest, upfront, well-balanced review for the reader.

The simple truth is,

Their actual intention is to insincerely lure you, the reader, into a false sense of trust, so they can shove their own shady, sneaky, duplicitous offers in your face!

We don’t condone that kind of crap, and recommend that being forewarned is being forearmed – if you ever find yourself being mistakenly drawn in by such dross.

Our message to share with you today is:

Two in-yer-face lessons why honesty is always the best policy

A stranger messaged us on Facebook recently to ask why, when he went looking for ‘dirt’ on Six Figure Mentors, he didn’t find any of our blog posts (that’s because we don’t write drivel). He sent us to one post which prompted us to record the video above.

The blog he referred to was written by a chap (we never name and shame) who’d published one blog post slagging off one competitor, another post dissing another competitor, and yet another post slandering yet another competitor. In about 10 or 15 posts on this chap's blog, he’d slated every single online training system he could think of. He declared every program was rubbish for one reason or another, and the only thing good in the world was him and his training! Yeah Right!

When you read between the lines in his blog posts, he says “Oh this competitor’s program is rubbish, BUT… I've got a system that's going to work really well”.

Writing nonsense like that is simply an underhand and dishonest way of marketing.

Something we never do is slate the competition. It's not an authentic way to market, nor a proper way to attract people to a business, because they’d be duped for the wrong reasons.

Predicated on a lie…

Yes, it's unethical and underhand, but what's more, all the posts on his website were predicated on a lie.

When you think about it, the people he’s attracting will not share his values, will not have any affinity for him, and eventually, will distrust him.

At the end of the day, yes, he might be able to sucker some gullible people into his scheme – for five to ten minutes – but those people will eventually wise up. Long-term, he won’t build a trusting relationship with people when coming from the space of untruth in his blogs.

The experience of reading that guys blogs, prompts us to share a couple of instances from days long past. From our childhoods. Raw experiences and learnings which shaped our values we operate by today.

Listen up:

GREG:

When I was a kid… probably around about nine or ten, I guess… growing up in shaky (earthquake prone) Christchurch, New Zealand… my best friend Mark and I had been allowed to go to the movies together in the centre of town, one sunny Saturday afternoon.

I can distinctly remember the movie… it was a James Bond movie with Roger Moore (so that'll give you an idea of how young I was then). It had Jaws in it – you know – the guy with metal teeth?

Before the movie, Mark and I went into a lolly shop (that’s what we called it – probably call it a sweet shop now days). Back then, in the cinemas, you could only buy ice creams that were frozen rock hard – you couldn't buy individual sweets.

I went over to some packets on the shelf, and said to Mark:

“Look how easy it’d be to nick some of this stuff.”

I picked up an item, then put it down again – went elsewhere in the store and picked up another package and placed it down again. We both laughed and sniggered about how easy it’d be to nick stuff, like a couple of school boys would.

When we walked out the shop – the smirk got wiped off my face – I was patted down and searched through every pocket.

Someone had been watching us all along…

That truly scared me into realising: honesty is always the best policy. That's something I've taken to heart for the rest of my life.

That experience really terrified me, and taught me a huge lesson when I was a wee kid, which has carried through my life to today.

FIONA:

My story’s similar to Greg’s!

If you were with me when I was seven, you’d see me holding my big sister’s hand, as we walked down to a lovely craft fair in the local town hall.

A couple of Christmases before that, I'd been given a doll – she was gorgeous, had long, luscious dark hair, and I named her Gina. I simply wanted Gina to be dressed to impress – better dressed than me, as I wore hand-me-downs, and hand-knitted, home-made clothes.

There were many displays of hand-crafted dolls clothes at the town hall fair. I'd got separated from sister so was by myself – faced with gorgeous, Gina-sized, dolls clothes – beckoning to me. There was only one short, middle-aged woman behind the stall of dolls clothes, and I can remember my childish innocence thinking:

“Well, I don't have any money with me because Mum hasn't given me any, so I can't buy anything.”

There was this lovely trouser suit right near the edge of the table… and I sort of thought…

“If I just whip it off the edge of the table, and put it in my pocket, no one will know.”

So, I did!

But, when I got home… oh my goodness – it’s something I’ll never forget!

One the way home, I’d told my sister what I'd done. I thought she’d be my confidante, but of course you know what sisters are like, she immediately told Mum that I’d stolen the dolls trouser suit.

I got the absolute hiding of my life. I was put in ‘no-go territory’ for about a day.

However, that's not all…

What’s WORSE, Mum made me take that dolly’s trouser suit back to the stall-holder at the town hall fair. She marched me down there, made me hand it back, and make me apologize for having pinched it.

I will never forget that humility to this day!

It's the same as Greg’s experience in the lolly shop befoe the movie, it's something we both learned while we were young: – stealing, dishonesty, and telling lies, don't serve us, or have any point of gain whatsoever!

So, to this day, honesty has been one of our core personal values.

No doubt about it

When someone questions what we’re doing online – we're fine with that because in our heart of hearts we know we’re solid in our values – and one of our big values is honesty.

When someone questions why we don't publish scam posts… we feel like running a mile, because it's totally out of line with our values.

And when someone alludes we’re dishonest, it raises the hairs on the back of our necks because it questions a value we hold true to ourselves. We take a sharp intake of breath, remind ourselves everyone has their own unique view of the world, ignore their negativity and clouded judgment. Exhale. Move on.

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”

William Shakespeare

To cut a long story short…

These little stories demonstrate how we live life and the ethics underpinning how we market.

The way we market doesn’t always gel with some people as we don’t ever make false promises or ‘gild the lily’. And that's OK with us.

There are many variation and styles of marketing online today. Everybody comes from a place of resonance with their own values. We always treasure our values of upfrontedness (is that a word?), truthfulness and honesty, simply because of the lessons we've earned the hard way at such young ages.

We hope that resonates with you?

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The post 2 Special Reasons Why We Think Honesty Is The Best Policy appeared first on gregandfionascott.com.