vision and mission

Climb Your Mountain: How to Develop Your Own Vision and Mission

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I’ve been having a lot of meaningful conversations with new members of the Junto. And it seems like a lot of us who ARE mission driven are because at some point in our working career we asked “Is this all there is to life? Working in the same cubical each day? The same factory? Same ol’ town?”

The truth is that it doesn’t have to be this way.

 This post (originally posted on July 20th, 2012) answers this specific question. I felt it needed a good polish!

So guys, I saw this post submitted by svrtngr on reddit: 

“Long story short, I got a full time job through a temp agency. The contract is for six months with the option to be kept on beyond that. At first I was really happy to have a job, but now I feel weird. Odd.

Is this it? Work full-time in a cubicle for long hours and get home too tired to do anything else for fifty/sixty years until you can “retire”?Because I’m not sure if I can handle it. Where does the fun and excitement come from? What else is there?”

Your Mission is Everything

Originally, this post made me upset. The one thing about reddit is that it’s completely anonymous. The advice that he was getting was generalized stuff we’ve all heard before. “You need to get out more and find out what makes you come alive and do that.”

That’s… helpful. But it’s pretty vague.

I personally thought he needed more help. Specifically he needed to work on finding his vision by working on his clarity.

Your Vision leads to Your Mission

I remember when I was in grad school, I realized that not everyone wants to be on top of the same mountain that I wanted to be on top of. At that same time, I realized that not everyone has the desire to climb their own mountain in the first place.

This realization blew me away.

From early on in life, I always knew that I wanted to do something that made an impact for other people through technology.

I just wasn’t sure how I was going to do that. That’s what I hoping to learn in college.

What I learned there, however, is what I didn’t want to do! I wasn’t going to make it as a typical 9 to 5’er. My internal clock doesn’t work that way and I always found my mind wandering anytime I was in a job.

Likewise, svrtngr needed to start from the beginning too.

His first step should be figuring out what he likes to do and learn about. After which, he can build his life and work around the life he sees for himself.

In short, he needs to assess what his Passions and Purpose are. From there, he can devise a Plan and Process.

Our vision is derived from our passion (interests) and purpose (where we fit in the world). We can determine our vision once we figure these other two things out.

From there, you devise a some early goals and and take dumb action. During this initial action sequence, it’s your job to find out what works and what doesn’t.

After repetitive attempts,  that’s where you can start to systematize and define your process!

Don’t Forget About Generational Patterns and the First Agreement

In previous writings, I wrote about the millennial generation being called the “lost generation”. If you believe in the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, then you’d believe that this generation is the next Hero Generation.

Here’s a bit of an explanation of this theory:

Kind of a disconnect there between those two names, right? One name sounds pretty passive while the other one is getting to work and does what needs to be done.

The reason that many people become part of this particular lost generation is that they’ve been told what they need to do with their lives from day 1. They have allowed the world to program them. They’ve never programmed themselves.

A good part of one of my all time favorite books, The Four Agreements, talks about being yourself. Actually it says, Be Impeccable With Your Word. Essentially, what it’s saying is we need to learn how to be ourselves.

Any actions we are doing is because of who we are. Not because of what the world programs us to be.

What does this mean in real talk?

It means that if we are constantly playing any sort of victim card – from “Oh, I live in a small town so I can’t do big business” to “I’m a certain color of skin, the world is against me.” then you’re probably right.

With that mentality, David Anderson says while it make us feel good in the moment, it will never allow us to amount to much. This mentality will keep us down as long as we continue to let it to.

So let it out and let it go.

Action Steps

So, guys. In essence, how can you get started on your way of doing what you’re supposed to be doing?

First thing – give yourself permission to be great. Cause if you can’t do that, you won’t be. Next, figure out what you like to do in this world. Figure out how you can use it to add value to others.

Next, plan on how you’re going to do that. For me, I really love pulling people out of the Matrix and helping them become better at helping others. How are you going to help people with your skills and interests? (If you think your skills and interests aren’t monetizable – they are. Remember that some of the biggest YouTubers are video game players!)

And then from there, just fine tune what you offer to what the market wants. Not what you’re about – but if there’s a pain, solve the pain for people if you can.

If you guys need additional help with any of this process, I’m going to be releasing an upcoming resource in the Junto: Finding Your Personal Mission: A Quick Guide to Inner Fulfillment. At least right now that’s the running title. In it, I’ll have 27 questions to help you find your passions, purpose, and a potential process – 9 questions for each.

When it’s done, I’ll have it in there as a resource.

Also, as you might know I’m a John Maxwell fan. He wrote a book called Put Your Dream to the Test: 10 Questions to Help You See It and Seize It. I can’t recommend this book enough. I always suggest this to all my past students and clients struggling with connecting their dreams and businesses.

Anyhow, I hope this helps! You got this guys!

block schedule

How You Can Master Your Time and Productivity with a Block Schedule Including Themes

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I recently posted this in the Junto:

block schedule

When you read this, what comes to your mind?

Is it a sense of frustration?

Is it a sense of irritation?

If so, do you have too many tasks and ideas that you’re trying to get to, but keep running out of daylight?

If that describes you, I completely feel where you’re coming from. It used to describe me too.

I always thought it wasn’t fair that others had found the secret to getting their own stuff done.

But after a few mastermind sessions in 2016, I realized that my problem was that I was TOO structured in my scheduling.

This post is all about making sure that you have balance in your schedule while chipping away at those things you really need to be doing in your life – especially if you’re in a day job you don’t like or you’re a super busy college student.

Setting the Guidelines of an Amazing Schedule

Often times when we’re picking the things we want to do, we often feel this battle between what’s right and not right to do. We feel a pull of what our inner self tells us we should be doing vs what the external world is telling us that we should be doing.

Ideally, we’d like everything to be what’s right and we’d like to be self directed. Unfortunately for those of us who have day jobs, we feel that this is an uphill battle we’re not going to win. (Great example of a self limiting belief right there.)

The first thing we need to do in winning back our time is to follow 12 guidelines – and they are:

  1. Know thyself in what makes you feel the most alive – this is your passion and is part of your Mission.
  2. Realize that as long as you’re in the United States (or another free country), your default mission in life is to find out what your personal mission is and fulfill it.
  3. Once you have determined that, you need to commit to yourself that you’ll spend your time fulfilling that mission.
  4. When you’re putting things into your schedule to fulfill said mission, make sure that you have a good and clear understanding of how those tasks are going to help you achieve it. (If you’re working a 9 to 5 – your job should be helping you fulfill that Mission. If it doesn’t, it’s time for a new job.)
  5. Are there any points in your schedule that you dread or fear, ask yourself why you fear them. Don’t dwell on the worst that could happen, but instead, simply sit with them and realize that they have to be done for you to move on.
  6. Realize that any changes you’re making are going to take time to get going if you’re just now starting them. But, here’s the key –  if you keep at it, you’ll start noticing that things are going well for you. Like me, you’ll think “Well, if I hadn’t made this connection or done that, this wouldn’t have happened.” This is the truth. The problem is, you have no idea what will set future motions in place. (This is known as the Law of Momentum.)
  7. If you’re stuck in a rut, you need to realize that you are. Then ask yourself – what do I need to learn to move forward?
  8. Make sure you set aside a time for learning. Learning new things regularly allows for you to constantly move forward. Action is one thing, but taking the same action over and over and expecting different results is… insanity. (Also, don’t burn yourself out thinking that you can find the answers by taking simple repetitive action.)
  9. If you DO find yourself burning out or sucking at something you should be better at, it’s best to notice it and don’t hide from it. This is the universe telling you you need time to rest.
  10. Be precise in making your schedule until you can look at it and you look forward to every event that’s on it.
  11. Make your schedule so that it doesn’t imprison or trap you, but, instead, frees you.
  12. Always remember your schedule is meant to nourish you, so you can relax and enjoy your life. (If you’ve gotten to this point in the list and you still dread getting up in the morning, you should start over at #1.)

 

Key Points to Remember about the Guidelines

Now, from all that you might be thinking, “Well, that’s all good – but I know there’s going to be some things that I don’t like doing even when I’m working towards my Mission”.

And you’d be right – maybe you hate paperwork. Maybe you’d rather be out interacting with folks. Perhaps you’re really into helping people with sales funnels, but you hate having to find clients.

That’s par for the course.

If you want to know you’re still in the right, here are two questions to ask yourself:

  1. Overall, is this week going to be enjoyable? Am I doing what I want to do – for the most part?
  2. What’s the first thing that I can do that would allow me to be me?

The reason that these two questions are important to ask yourself is because, again, we’re working from a mission perspective.

If you feel you’re doing more things that you don’t want or like to do – than you’re not in the right position in life (or at work). Secondly, if you don’t have enough autonomy to do an act that you actually like to start your day and/or week off with a simple win – then there’s probably something wrong there as well.

In other words, do things that get you to your mission. Don’t do them because you think it’s the thing to do. That’s the will of the World forcing you to do something. Other people have no problem telling other people what to do. That’s the way the world works.

Also, don’t avoid things just to avoid them. Sometimes you’ll have to embrace the suck – but it’s so worth it if it’s in alignment with your mission.

For example if you want to become better at copywriting for marketing purposes – go find some great examples of marketing and use it as a guide to craft your own. (Arne has us do this in his FB group growth course student group all the time.)

 

Note to Newbie Time Blockers

Now, if you’ve never time blocked before, then this next part will be a little easier than if you have.

See, I used to be a scheduling Nazi. I had to be very specific in when I did this, this, and that. Otherwise, I didn’t think I was doing a great job in scheduling.

Well, long story short, I realized that I learned to schedule from a Driver-Analytical personality-type person. The thing about Driver-Analytical types of people, they are all about completing tasks. The more, the merrier.

That’s not what I’m about.

I’m more about building relationships. Why? Because from good relationships come opportunities which yield possible income.

So, in the end, depending on your own personality, what takes priority on your calendar might be different than mine.

That said, here’s how to time block with themes.

 

Time Blocking with Interval Themes

Generally speaking, these days I have two types of weeks as a solopreneur. One week (called ‘A weeks’) I focus more on content development – a blog post, a podcast post, and a video in the Junto.

The other week (which I call ‘B weeks’) I focus more on marketing and group development as well as learning.

As you can see, I have two main themes that I use. However, I’ve known people that use 4 themes a month. I also know folks who theme their entire month.

What do these themes consist of?

Well, for me, they’re general guidance of the things that I have to do in a given day. Other folks use them to get better at something, while yet other some people use it as a way to control their overall content building and marketing structure.

 

Interval Themes in Practice – A Step-By-Step Guide:

So let’s look at this from a weekly example – because that’s essentially what I use.

  1. The first thing you want to do is determine what kind of theme you have for that week. Usually you want to do this on Sunday after reflecting on how your previous week went.
  2. Next, you’ll want to set the time that you want to get started on your work. Honestly, I don’t usually get started on my work day until 10am. I don’t finish until 5 or 6. But during that time, I’m usually very focused on the work at hand or, for short breaks, posting in the Junto or building relationships with its members.
  3. When it’s quitting time – it’s quitting time. I learned early from Pat Flynn that you want to be able to turn things off for the night when your loved ones are home. Even when he had a one room apartment, his computer was in a corner and he used his laptop for more personal things.
  4. If you’re more of a task oriented person – I got you! Make sure you plan out time for relaxation and fun. Seriously. If that means throwing date night on your schedule, do it. Fortunately for me and Maria, we’re pretty lackadaisical when it comes to our evenings!

 

The General Structure Of My Daily Schedule

Just an idea of what a typical day might look like. I really don’t have this all laid out in

  1. Morning Routine – Breakfast (no carbs!), workout, a bit of meditating, finding out what’s going on in the world
  2. First item of the day – Something that gives you an easy win. For me, I knock out my emails. Once I do that, I close Mail. I’ll reopen it later – but emails are super distracting throughout the day!
  3. Second item is usually an easy win item as well. These days, it’s posting in the Junto and few other groups.
  4. Then, until lunch, I’m either doing growth related activities (meeting people, meetings, learning) or working on production of content.
  5. After lunch, I’m focused more on finishing said content, mastery, and marketing.

 

Alternative Version for Someone who Doesn’t Own Their Entire Day

So, this is a pretty sucky situation – but a lot of us have to start here. So realize that you’re going to have a bit of a handicap but you’re not alone.

Depending on whether you’re a morning person or a night owl, you’re going to aim to work 2 hours a day on your craft before you go to work or after you come home.

Ideally, the last part of the day should be spent just chilling for at least an hour. Again you’re looking to enjoy your life. So, if I had to decide, I’d go for 2 hours before work. That way when you go to your day job, you have the bonus of having already worked on your craft and not having to dread it coming home.

So, go to bed one hour earlier, then wake up 2 hours earlier. You can really start your day on fire this way. Those first two hours can be focused on heavy amounts of action.

But keep in mind, don’t sacrifice that much to the point of feeling empty. Enjoy each minute you can now. You want to make sure you’re enjoying every single day.

Action Steps

So, there you have it. Again, this is just what has worked for me combined with my new schedule for building the group.

Obviously there’s a huge difference if you have a day job. So if you can find a day job that supports your mission, that’s even better. That’s what’s great about this new sharing economy of ours.

Heck, even Laila started substitute teaching and tutoring before she got completely up to speed with her coaching practice. But what’s great is that those tutoring spots got her some of her clients!

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know below! 🙂

how to stop negative thoughts

Barbara Ireland: How to Stop Negative Thoughts – What We Can Learn from a Near Death Experience (AoL 079)

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Society teaches us to look for the negative in situations. Just about everything that is popular today has some sort of conflict. From TV shows, news, and movies – we’re always looking at what is wrong with the world around us. (Heck, I’m pretty sure that’s how Trump got the nomination and won the election – he used the negative for his benefit.)

It’s very uncommon for people to natively want to look for the good in situations. Mainly because we’re not programmed to be like that.

However, as our guest in this session, Barbara Ireland talks about in this session, having that perspective isn’t very useful if you’re trying to do more than just get by or simply survive.

Just like Clay mentioned in session 78, you’re truly wanting to have a great life, then you’re going to have to stop looking for what’s wrong in every situation.

You need to stop thinking negative thoughts.

In this conversation, Laila and I discover what Barbara learned about negative thoughts and breaking out of them… all thanks to the near death experience she had.

As always, thanks for listening, and enjoy the show!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Where did the journey of being an entrepreneur begin for Barbara? 8:27
  • What were her creative influences growing up? 13:11
  • Did she have any mentors growing up? 15:34
  • How she went from being a singer to a writer through having her near death experience? 19:39
  • What made her write her book in the first place? 30:03
  • What are mindloops and her thoughts on positive and negative mentality? 35:07
  • How does she start the process of helping people who are in a funk and become better versions of themselves? 40:54
  • What is delooping? 43:50
  • What are steps of delooping that people tend to struggle with the most? 49:45
  • What are some of Barbara’s techniques in her delooping method? 51:04
  • As an NDE herself, what are Barbara’s impressions of the Netflix show The OA? 1:01:01
  • What are Barbara’s top 3 favorite books? 1:08:50
  • One thing under $100 that changed her life? 1:12:30
  • What was something she believed as a 30 year old and doesn’t today? 1:14:10
  • What is one piece of advice that has changed her mindset the most? 1:15:59
  • Secret to achieving personal freedom? 1:16:24
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

How to Discuss Politics Without Causing a Fight:

Megan Phelps-Roger on why she left the Westboro Baptist Church:

4 Techniques to Deloop from Negative Thoughts:

Song “At Last” Performed by Barbara Ireland:
>

Bonus video: Pablo Coelho on CBS Sunday Morning:

barbara ireland
barbara ireland
how to stop negative thoughts
how to stop negative thoughts

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

find your niche

Emily Kelly on Finding Your Niche, Working Remotely, and Mastering Empathetic Writing (AoL 069)

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When first starting, many of us have problems with being an entrepreneur in one way or another. Our main issue, many times, is we simply don’t know where we fit. We’re told to “find your niche” and often times, we find it hard because we could do so many things. However, we need to learn what it is that we do well and hire out for things we’d rather not.

Over at Fizzle, for example, Chase and Corbett hired in Steph Crowder to help with customer support back in 2015.

Steph, having worked at a few startups by that point, knew how to interact with clients on a one to one basis. It was something that Chase, who’s the main creative at Fizzle, and Corbett, the business brain, didn’t have the resources to do themselves.

In our interview with Steph in 2016, we learned that she was expecting soon.

They had to get a fill-in for her while she was on maternity leave.

Today’s guest, Emily Kelly, was the hero for Fizzle during that time.

But, just because she was with them temporarily, doesn’t mean she was bad at the position.

In fact, it was part of her new role as as a virtual customer support specialist. She has taken the phrase “find your niche” seriously.

In this interview, we find out about her journey to become a virtual assistant, what she recommends to folks coming right out of college to keep them from getting burnt out at work, and some pointers in putting emotion into writing.

If you’re thinking about about starting your own business, perhaps being a virtual assistant first might just be in the future for you as well.

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • What kind of career did she envision as she was going to school? 8:02
  • Which creative influences did she have in her life growing up? 10:52
  • What it was like to have her dad working remotely growing up. 13:15
  • When was the first time Emily had experience with entrepreneurship herself? 14:47
  • What was it like to work at a startup vs where she previously worked? 18:13
  • What advice would she give someone who’s coming out of college so they don’t get burnt out? 21:37
  • Which mindset did Emily utilize while working for a startup? How did she use the advice “Find your niche”? 27:15
  • What is some advice that she’d give someone to get more emotion into their writing? 37:04
  • What are some things to look for when hiring remote help? 39:28
  • 3 Influencers or teachers that have helped Emily get to where she is today. 44:38
  • One gift that she likes giving others. 45:17
  • Something she believed as a 21 year old but doesn’t now and why? 45:46
  • If she could place an ad anywhere in the world cost free, what would it be and where? 46:19
  • Who does Emily think of as a success and why? 48:29
  • What are some ways that someone can improve their customer support? 49:53
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Broke with Billy Corben:

Intro to Deep Work by Cal Newport:

How to Become a Virtual Assistant:

Simon Sinek on the Millennial Question:

Bonus: Simon Sinek followup:

Thank You For Sharing Some Time With Us!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

2016 year in review

2016 Year in Review: What was Hot and What was Not

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As we’re quickly approaching Christmas this weekend and then onto the beginning of a New Year, I thought I’d go ahead and recap the story of where New Inceptions is now including some of our more popular posts and podcast episodes.

If you’re the type that celebrates the holidays, Happy Holidays to you and yours!

We’ll Start with Some Shout Outs:

But before I do, I want to make a shout out to a few people who have really helped New Inceptions grow this past year.

The Team – version 1.0:

This past year, I’ve been able to introduce there was a change of guard for the co-hosts of the Angles of Lattitude Podcast. When I first launched the show, I had a few friends on board as co-hosts that I thought were going to be adding value to the foreseeable future.

Well, life has a tendency to change very quickly. And many times those changes aren’t easy to predict where they’ll take folks. So just to keep you all in the loop of what has happened with my first group of co-hosts, here’s a current update:

  • Jon has graduated college and is now working for J.P. Morgan in Columbus, Ohio.
  • Brian is doing quite well with building lead funnels for medium sized companies.
  • Trin got a promotion at her job, which, I’m sure has given her plenty on her plate.

Thanks to these guys, I had a taste of the refreshing spin that having multiple voices could have on a business oriented podcast.

The Team as of 2016:

 

Laila Rahmatian

In January of 2016, I brought in Laila Rahmatian to be a co-host of mine. At the time, Laila, like me, had some struggles to embrace her new identity. In fact, in her interview, she mentioned that she still wanted to pursue her engineering career.

Much has changed for her this past year. She has fully embraced her role as The Fitness Astronaut and I’m proud to say that she is really becoming well adjusted with her new profession.

Ginger Kern

Thanks to Cam Adair, I was introduced to Ginger Kern. Ginger, founder of the Traveler’s Mindset, and guest on session 20, quickly became my go to person for anything travel lifestyle related and soon accepted a role as contributor. Her most recent spot was with Cam again in session 62. Look for bigger things from both Ginger and Cam in 2017.

Daniel Postma

One of the sessions Ginger was a co-host for was with Daniel Postma. At the time, I had no idea who he was other than a young serial entrepreneur who had done some pretty interesting things. It was actually during the show, that we realized one of those interesting things had been to shadow Dane Maxwell for month a few years back.

Daniel still continues to amaze me with his quick wit and his ability to just go out and talk to people he’s never met before. He has amazing knack to get to know people really quickly. And I think part of that comes from what Jesse Winton recently said about homeschooler’s having to reach out more to meet people than those of us who have gone a more traditional route.

Clay Green

Finally, I had the opportunity to meet and speak with Clay Green in July. Clay was someone that I had come to find out about once I posted my interview with Daniel – Daniel had actually interviewed Clay at one point.

Clay has only done a couple of shows with me, but you can tell that he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with in this new year as he has started a tour to connect with those around the country and inspire more people to live a life that isn’t so normal. You can find him via his site here.

Anyhow, a big thanks to these folks for coming on the show and being vital parts of the community.

 

The Best of New Inceptions – Blog Posts:

 

How to Start a Business with a Low Budget, Little Technology Access, Hardly Any Time, and No College Education

In my part of the country, the old mindset of “a formal education is the only pathway to success” is pretty prevalent. Many people have a habit of counting themselves out before they give themselves a chance to succeed.

In this post, I wanted to challenge that idea and others by answering the question “What kind of business can I start if I don’t have the money, skills, or technology to get it going?”

 

Do Yourself a Favor: Practice Just In Time Learning

One of the biggest mistakes that I’ve been doing ever since I wanted to start my own business was just listen to the experts regularly and take no action.

One of the primary goals of New Inceptions is to help others who want to start their own creative business finally be able to do so.

One thing that has helped me actually take action is by practicing Just in Time Learning. Barrett Brooks mentioned this quite a bit during his tenure at Fizzle.

 

Labeling Business Accomplishment: Find Your Place, Your Peers, and GROW Faster!

Another thing I’ve learned that is in relation to listening to experts is that many times those folks are giving advice to people who are readily able to put in the kinds of resources that they themselves place in their businesses. Case in point, Pat Flynn is the real deal when it comes to growing an online business. If it wasn’t for Pat, I wouldn’t have started my new journey after getting out of college.

However, he’s on a level where I just don’t see myself at yet. So I have to search for people who can help me fill in the dots between where he is now (where I want to be) and where I currently am for advice.

You should do the same.

 

How to Inexpensively Start a Podcast: Equipment and Software

I had the chance to try plenty of things this year. One of which was a new writing style for “How-To” posts. One of those posts was actually the first of a series of posts for how to make a podcast. I felt and continue to feel that podcasting is the number one thing I’m asked about and I felt that I needed to get some of my knowledge out there.

Because I’m continued to be asked about it, I’m currently in talks with some folks to bring my first course to you guys in 2017 which will be a podcasters roundtable on how they produce their shows.

 

The Best of New Inceptions – Podcast Sessions:

 

AoL 023: Recognizing the Delusion of Passion: Helping Millennials find True Personal Freedom with Mark Nathan

Not only did Laila and I have the chance to talk with one of my favorite speakers that really influenced me to where I am today, but I also had the opportunity to help him with his book launch!

In this chat, find out more about the book and Mark’s background.

 

AoL 034: Deadlines, Life Changes, & Learning on the Job at Fizzle.co with Steph Crowder

You guys know I love Fizzle and I owe quite a bit to it and it’s community to where New Inceptions is today. Here it from Steph what Fizzle can do for you and why she actually applied to become a member of the team there.

 

AoL 044: Getting Through Difficult Times and Busting the Myth of Overnight Success with Ashley Zahabian

Ashley is someone that I have to mention. She has a lot of stuff figured out and I think a lot of young Millennials can learn something from her attitude.

In this chat, she talks about how even though she seems like an “overnight success” it’s definitely not the case.

 

AoL 059: Touring Alaska and Teaching English by Rejecting the Menu with Drew Badger

Drew, like me, is originally from the midwest. But, unlike me, he did the atypical right out college.

He moved to Japan with just an interest and no knowledge of the culture or language in pursuit of something he wanted to find out more about.

Today he finds himself not only teaching English on YouTube, but helping others learn how to reject what they perceive as the bounds of their life.

 

A Building Year

All in all, 2016 has been a pretty awesome year. Lots of amazing guests on the show and I’ve met tons of folks who inspire me to continue pushing forward.

While I’ve seen great growth this year, we’ve also had a few growing pains. For one, we recently found out that Google wasn’t registering our site correctly most of the year. Apparently for most of the year iTunes wasn’t making it easy to find AND I was getting negative SEO from some bots out of Indonesia.

And two, let’s not forget to mention the email newsletter I started. Lots of mixed reviews from the first test sequence. I think every week was a little more than you all could handle for now. Perhaps once a month is better?

 

Take Action: How About You?

Before you go, I want to know how your 2016 went. What did you learn and what are you proud of?

Feel free to share one piece (please!) of content that you’re most proud of from this past year.

Make sure you add some words (keywords?) beyond the link so that all readers here can understand why you chose that particular piece.

Looking forward to seeing what all you’ve been up to this year!!

 

peaks and valleys

Danielle Watson: Navigating the Peaks and Valleys of Success in Business and Life (AoL 058)

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Overwhelmed. Lethargic. Swamped. Lost. This is what we can feel like in the valleys of our work and our lives. You…

– think you’re the only one who cares.
– feel that you’re the only who gets stuff done on your team (if you’re lucky enough to have one).
– get lost in the fog of un-motivation. (Or is it “de-motivation”?)
– start wondering “what if I’m doing it all wrong?”.

No matter the success level, at one point or another all creative entrepreneurs go through this funk.

It comes with the territory – just like crazy success.

Today’s guest, Danielle Watson, knows all about the highs and the lows – the peaks and the valleys.

From being on all types of media platforms talking about her Purse Process, to having to do a TEDx presentation during one of the most dramatic periods of her life. She’s gone through it.

In this interview, Laila and I get the chance to ask her why she chose the major she did as a self professed girly-girl, how she stumbled upon the Purse Process, and more about what all happened during the time she was preparing for her TEDx talk.

Enjoy!

SPECIFICALLY, YOU’LL FIND OUT MORE ABOUT:

  • Why did she pick a degree in anthropology? 11:27
  • Would she go through her schooling all over again? 14:54
  • What advice Danielle would give someone who’s just going into college 16:39
  • How did she feel that she didn’t fit the mold of her peers in college. 20:34
  • Did she ever use her degree as most people would out of school? 22:14
  • How did she find out that she could add value to others using her anthropological skills? 24:39
  • What your purse can tell you about your personality. 32:06
  • How Danielle got into doing a TEDx presentation. 35:57
  • Why she had a very bumpy road in preparing for it. 39:42
  • What direction she’s going after her TEDx experience. 46:59
  • What are 3 of her favorite podcasts? 55:58
  • What’s the secret to achieving personal freedom? 57:28
  • Something she believed as a 35 year old but doesn’t believe now? 57:55
  • One thing under $100 that has changed Danielle’s life? 58:21
  • If someone was trying to put their knowledge to use in a new business, how could they do that? 1:00:08
  • … and MUCH more!

Right click here and save-as to download this episode to your computer.

ITEMS and PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRAS:

Danielle’s TEDx talk:

Danielle’s interview with Mimika Cooney:

Sample of her Facebook Live show:

Danielle on Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast:


Thanks so much for joining us again this week. Have some feedback you’d like to share? Leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the top of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The AoL Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show, and we read each and every one of them.

If you have any questions feel free to email them over via the email mentioned in the show or by our contact form.

And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and/or Google Play Music. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us!

Cheers!

 

How to Make a Personal Development Plan for Your Business Which You’ll Be Sure to Stick To!

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In the last post, I talked about Just In Time Learning. This is something that I’ve been learning quite a bit about recently.

Before I was focusing on building New Inceptions, I would always just listen to whatever the influencers had to say. Many times just because it was actionable information.

But, I never took action and therefore it was really just entertainment.

Once I did start focusing, however, I was able to actually apply what I was learning. And then I would naturally have more questions that needed answers. And the process would keep going.

This process has lead to me mastering skills and abilities that I didn’t know I’d even have before starting on the journey of building a business.

Want to know my strategy for mastering parts of my business? Here you go:

Step-by-step process: How to Make a Personal Development Plan for Your Business that You’ll Be Sure to Stick To

I’m going to walk you through all six steps here. Follow along and do what I do.

Step 1: Brainstorm

Using a mind map, I want you to think of 10 to 15 things that you believe that you could that could take your business to the next level.

Before you think of those items, I want you to give yourself 4 different categories that will help you with your thinking.

These 4 different categories are things that would help your business grow. So, for example, here are 4:

  1. Speaking opporutunities
  2. A website
  3. Products
  4. Engaging with potential clients

If you’ve never heard of a mind map, here’s what one might look like (via Pat Flynn in this 2008 post).

pats-mindmap

These are examples of things that Pat could make money from.

This mind mapping process can give you a much clearer sense of what’s important and you need to be focusing on next.

Step 2: From Your Mindmapping, preferably pick skills and topics that are in the Personal Development Sweet Spot.

Meaning that:

  1. You have a competency in or can perform it.
  2. You have a passion for it (or it’s existence will help your passion).
  3. Other people will want it.

Here’s a visualization of where you should be working:

personal-development-sweet-spot

Step 3: Prioritize – which of these chosen skills or actions will have the most impact on your business?

Now that you’ve brought this list down a bit, let’s see if it makes sense to do them right now.

First, do any of the items that you’re thinking about working on fall into one of the 6 Cornerstones of a Successful Online Business?

For example, if one of your items is learning how to use a certain type of social media (because one of the 4 topics we listed was engaging with potential clients), then you’d learn that social media, when it comes to business, is a form of marketing.

However, another one of our topics was “a website”.

Would it make sense to market your services first or have a place on the web (or in the real world for that matter) where people can find out more about you?

That’s where a website is needed. Marketing and engagement should come after actually having somewhere for people to find out more about what you’re doing.

Again, get the 6 Cornerstones eBook to help with this part.

Step 4: Evidence of Accomplishment

So let’s say that you pick doing a website now because you accept what I said in the last step.

How will you know that your website is done enough that you can start marketing it?

What does “Done” look like here?

That decision is going to be up to you. You might just opt for a long one page solution. Or, you might feel that you want to create different pages that that have different jobs. What’s best for what you’re wanting to do?

You have to start with the end in mind of what you want to achieve before you go looking for how you should do it.

Examples of things that might be considered “done” in my book would include:

  1. My New Product is available.
  2. I have a landing page for that new product.

Or if I wanted to work on traffic and leads:

  1. How many new followers do I need to have in order to get X traffic?

Knowing what you’re looking for will help you do the next step…

Step 5: Find and List 10 Resources or People That You Might Be Able to Learn it From

Ok, so how do you find someone that has the knowledge (free or for a premium) that will help you do what you want to do?

I have 5 suggestions you can to with increasing cost to get what you’re looking for:

  • Search YouTube – You’ll find the free options here. Many times, though, they’re previews of the main course.
  • Subscribe to Fizzle – Only $35 a month and it covers all the bases of what you need to know at any given time while building a young business. (Use this link for 2 weeks for free!)

fizzle

Here’s the main page of Fizzle’s library of courses. Now you see why I recommend them!!

  • Go to a site like Lynda.com or uDemy to find specific skills for your business.
  • Buy a big ol’ course from a lead influencer. These usually have the best results because they’re so rich in details, but you will be paying through the nose for it. (These can typically cost anywhere from $500 – $5000 per course!!) You’ll hear about these courses from big mediapreneurs like Pat Flynn, Jordan Harbinger, and Lewis Howes.
  • Buy a course from a lesser known person through a site like Producthunt.com. Results might definitely vary here, but you might find a bargain!!

Step 6: Implementation through Accountability

Learning about some new topic, strategy, or skill, won’t mean anything unless you put what you’re learning about to use.

Some people like to buy the higher cost courses just because the higher cost will keep them more accountable to implementing what they’ve learned.

However, many of those courses are time sensitive and will expect your full focus right away. Often times you get to meet others through these courses and help each other accomplish more together.

…

Side Note: If you’re wondering how much a product that is currently being hyped will cost – the more hype combined with the more results a free portion of the product will yield, the more you can expect the final program costing.

So a great example of this was the recent Ryan Levesque’s Ask Method. He was on several shows giving great quality in-depth pointers in how to actually do something. He was also mentioned several times in email campaigns by other folks as affiliates. The actual cost of the program is unknown to me, but I would go out on a limb and guess it was easily $2000 to $5000 per participant. And if people wanted to work with him in a small workshop type of function – that could easily start that price at $10k for the entry price.

Personally, I’ve been through two programs like this: The John Maxwell Team Certification Program and The Foundation. My networks have blossomed greatly because of my involvement with both.

…

Other resources that are available all the time won’t require as much focus and chances are their price points won’t be in the thousands.

However, you won’t be getting built in accountability with it.

If you have a network already in place of people who are ready to be accountable with you in whatever you want to work on, then you don’t need that extra price

If you’re just getting starting on your business, here’s my suggestion: Hop on Fizzle and make use of their Roadmap or if you’re a reader, read Pat Flynn’s book Will It Fly?

Action Steps:

Here’s my challenge to you.

Pick 5 topics or skills that you’re going to learn about within the next month or so by the end of this week. Then start learning about the first one next week. It might take you longer than a week to learn and do as much as you can for each one. How quickly you learn them is completely up to you.

But you’ll have focus because you’ll know what you’re supposed to be learning about!

And, of course, the bright side of that is that you won’t go crazy trying to convince yourself you need to be doing 20 different things!

Let me know how it works out for you below!