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How to Raise Your Standards

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Great standards to strive for, right? Brendon always makes me think about things in a new light.

You know, we’re all trying to strive to higher levels. One of my all time most visited posts is this one I shared about 21 Standards that we can live and work by. However, since then, I’ve talked with a few readers who have thought that a person with all of those standards is someone who is completely unlike them.

They believe that they’re just too different. And those differences will prohibit them from ever reaching that level of success in their lives. They’ll never be like that expert… that ideal or model person. That person is just way too different.

They might even say, “I don’t trust them. They’re fake.” or “It’s easy for them to say, they don’t get where I’m coming from.”

And believe me, I can see where they’re coming from. In fact, I’ve been there. And what I found out is that there’s two parts in how you can raise your standards.

Add New Habits and Standards In (One by One)

This self limiting belief that “I’ll never be able to be successful” is one that I hear too often. Be the ideal person that they’re comparing themselves to is someone like Joe (the original author of those 21 standards) or another “ideal person”, they simply don’t see themselves being able to shed their old self. Again, I can relate. (I mean, as you guys know… I had a HUGE problem with having a positive attitude all the time. But in retrospect, it was a good exercise for me to have gone through.)

A person that has a life full of standards is one who has been working on making themselves better day after day. Each standard that they live by, they more than likely developed it separately from the others. They practiced it daily until it became automatic. Then they started working on another personal standard.

For example, when I first was in college, I simply didn’t make good grades. Part of this could have been the fact that my major was one of the hardest on campus. However, I think the problem was mainly the fact that I didn’t know how to study. And because I didn’t know how to study, my test taking was horrible as well. (Why should I know how to study? I was able to cruise through high school by simply fumbling around the test and getting by with B’s and A’s on my report card.)

I knew I was a good student. That I had it in me to get good grades. I just had to figure out how to play the game. I knew I had to raise my standards.

So when I realized that the material wasn’t the problem, but, instead, was the actual practices I used to “study” back then, it was certainly nice to know what the problem was. (My studying habits were “do the ones you know how to do and if you don’t know how to do them, then copy off of someone else.” This practice would soon almost get me kicked out!) Essentially I was looking at the problem as a whole and not breaking the questions down (as I’d later find out in my study group).

As I got better at studying, I got more comfortable with the material that was being taught in class. In fact, by the time I was in my second senior year (of 3), my test taking skills started going up as well. Why? Because I was no longer having anxiety during the test. I realized that most problems that I had were a matter of knowing a process to break them down. Prior to that point, I was constantly second guessing myself as to whether I really knew the answer or not before I even attempted breaking it down.

So when I finally knew the material and what the patterns were to solve the problems, I actually performed fairly well on tests after that. (I hope that relates to some of you who majored in a STEM field. If your major involved a ton of writing… I always did well by just writing down everything I knew and/or thought about a given subject and then linking them together.)

How does this apply here? The same strategy can be applied to other practices in life.

Let’s say you want to have better health. First, you need to start telling yourself that you are a healthy person. Do this regularly. Especially when you have cravings for a snack. Telling yourself this will help you from jumping off the wagon.  You do this because your mind starts believing things the more it hears it. Next, change your diet. Once that becomes natural, then start getting more sleep. Then after that, try to exercise more. Do one for 30 days, then add the next for 30 days, and then add the next. After 90 days, you’ll have three healthy habits you’ll find hard to quit. Spoon feed yourself these new habits or you’ll choke and not accomplish any of it.

Limiting and/or Removing Old Standards and Habits

You probably wondered when this was going to happen. I mean, the last example I gave with being more healthy, you were probably thinking, “Well, if I add more sleep and exercise more, how am I supposed to keep on top of all my TV shows in the evening?” or something similar. There are only so many hours in a day, right?

This is true. However, let’s think about two contrasting thoughts here.

  1.  You don’t have to be an exact replica of that model person you’re aiming to have similar qualities with. Just because you’re trying to be healthier, doesn’t mean you have to cut out all of your unhealthy habits. You can still binge on sweets, TV, video games, etc. (Just not like you used to…)
  2. As you change more and more and come closer to that model person that you want to be similar to (but not exactly like), you’re going to make more and more comparisons (micro-comparisons, even?) in what you do with your time and effort vs what they do with their time and effort. It’s natural as we grow as a human. In fact, you probably won’t notice the transformation as it doesn’t come over night. But if you keep a journal and/or analyze the thoughts you have right now vs the thoughts you had before you started your journey to the new you, they’re going to be crazy different.

Essentially, one side of you wants to remain YOU. The other side wants to change just enough to get their results.

Here’s the deal with those two thoughts. One one side, I think it’s inherent that you’re going to want to keep doing some of the things that you believe make you, you. I mean, after all, you don’t want to be that like that know it all expert, right? They don’t seem real. You want to make the transformation on your own terms. I totally get that.

The other side of you is like “Uh, I really think we need to be better at drinking water. That know it all expert actually does that pretty well. You always see her with a bottle. I wonder how she trained herself to drink water all the time.” Eventually, what you might come to find out is that the reason you might not have trusted or disliked someone at first is because they made you feel highly uncomfortable at the beginning. They were too alien. They were too good to be true.

However, now that you’re closer to them in multiple ways, you see them not only as a teacher, you actually start thinking of them as a person. And you might even start seeing some of their faults. They’re not as perfect as you once thought they were.

When you hit this level. You’ll get a different perspective not only on them and their actions, but on your actions as well. Knowing that this person puts on their pants one leg at a time just like you, you’ll start realizing some of the sacrifices they’ve made to get as far as they have.

This is when you ask yourself, do I want to have the results they have? If the answer is yes, then you’ll make the sacrifices they have. If the answer is no, then you’ll keep those old parts of your life as you see fit.

And just so you know when it’s right to be an “expert” for other people. I personally believe that this is the point. When you have learned all that you can from that previous ideal or model person, have gotten some of your own results, and can understand their actions might contradict what you want your end goal to be… that’s when you’re now in the teacher’s seat.

Homework:

What’s one subject that you know quite a bit about now that at one point you were clueless about? Maybe you had no idea where to start when you first began? Perhaps you were afraid to start? Do you remember where and from whom you learned the knowledge you have now? Let us know below. You might even gain some new students!

AoL009: Ideas to Improve all the Tomorrows of your Life with Jim Vaughan

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Gary Vaynerchuk, Pat Flynn, Tim Ferriss, even Tony Robbins. These are names that we can picture when we think about being successful in climbing their respective career mountains. We all know these names because they share, on a regular basis, how they got to where they’re at and what they’re currently doing. One thing that they all have in common is that they’re releasing new content all the time. That’s what makes them popular, I’m sure.

They all are people we’d consider to be extraordinary and able to give lots of information in how we can be great like them. However, the idea of being great and teaching others to be the same isn’t new. Would you believe that Tony Robbins wasn’t the first big self-help star out there? He had to learn from others… but who did he learn from? Who was popular in that time?

These were questions I continually searched when I first learned about the self-help field. I know Tony mentions a few in his books, but I always wondered if there were others that were popular at the time. If you know Tony’s story, you know that he started out pretty normal like most of us. So it wasn’t like he had special access to any insider information.

When I met Jim Vaughan in 2012, he helped shed some light on this mystery. With the site that he had at the time, I was able to go into this vast library and learn from some of these past rock stars of success. Some of those names included Earl Nightingale, Paul J. Meyer, Andrew Carnegie and others. These are people who he considers part of his Personal Board of Directors. These were people that I was sure that could have impacted Tony’s education!

And when I say education, don’t believe that what I’m talking about has anything to do with what you find in formal education. You know, K-12 and college. So much of that knowledge is a complete waste of time when it comes to actually being successful in life. I mean, outside of those who graduated with a STEM related major, it’s insane how many college graduates don’t have a job in the field they went to school for. However, I’m sure you know this. (Hell, you might even be one of those people. I feel your pain. I went to school for a STEM related major… and used it for a whole two years before I realized that it didn’t fit what I wanted to do.)

So, if you feel that you’ve been lead astray in your career (and life in general) and want to really learn from proven old-school life advice, I’d check out what Jim has to say. He’s been listening and implementing a lot of it for a good part of his life and is now dedicated to passing that knowledge along. It might just help you be the next Tony Robbins in your field.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • Why Jim started listening to success masters and how they amplified his career.
  • How Jim got hired to do DJ work at the White House (yes, that White House).
  • How you can change your thought process to get to where you want in life.
  • What kind of impact Jim wants to make with his businesses.
  • How Jim came up with the idea for the IQ Morning Report and what it consists of.
  • Why he believes it’s so important to keep learning.
  • Some of the great tips he’s learned through the years including the easiest way to become a people magnet.
  • Proof that you don’t need a formal education to do well for yourself in life.
  • …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:

Here’s some popular YouTube videos and other media related to Jim’s Personal Board of Directors:

Thanks for Listening!

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, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

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

Cheers!

Exercise Your Personal Freedom

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Happy Election day! In the United States, we’re having elections today. It’s not a big one like next year’s will be, but it’s still something to take notice of. Personally, I’m close to an interesting mayor race in Indy. But for the most part, I haven’t seen too much more being advertised than that… not even in my hometown!

One thing that I believe that politicians really need to start addressing is the shrinking middle class. Here’s some data on that:

How has this happened? How has the top 1% gained 40% of all the money in the country? Well, for starters, big company jobs have been taken overseas. The jobs that are available don’t pay as much as they once did (with inflation in mind), and frankly, we have way too many people taking advantage of government run programs that were initially designed to help those in need. People honestly don’t work enough hours so that they have “benefits” form the government. (Yeah, really. As an HR professional, Maria can tell you all about it.) I’m sure I’ve just scratched the surface on what’s going on, but you get the picture.

As a nation, what are we doing to right the ship?

Not much, it seems.

That can change. Here’s how.

Two Things You Can Do To Exercise Your Personal Freedom

Elect Representation That is in Favor of Your Freedom

For the middle class to grow, two things need to happen. The first is simply the fact that politicians need to reform regulations that are currently holding our markets hostage. One such market is the housing market. After hearing that most of the cost of a house is due to the regulations on that house, I had to look it up. What I found was crazy. I came across a few articles that suggest that anywhere from 40% to 60% of the cost of a house is based on regulations. (Here’s one source for San Diego in April.) It seems that we keep electing people who add more and more regulations on various markets. How many times do we need to shoot ourselves in the foot?

We need to listen to the candidates for next year. Do they talk about taking money from group and giving it to another? Do they talk about restrictions and more control? If you hear any of those things, change the channel or run away. Whatever they’re planning on doing to the 1% (which I agree is part of the problem), it’s not going help the rest of us. The wealthy need to be incentivized to bring back jobs and wealth. Not be punished. If we try to take their wealth, they’ll simply outsource more of it. Or worse yet, move away and take their cut of the nation’s money with them.

What you can do is educate yourself on who’s running and then vote on whether that person is for big government of small government. Look at their voting record. Listen to other sources’ reviews of them. If they want smaller government, it means you have more freedom. Larger government equals less freedom for you as an individual. Exercise your personal freedom and go vote.

Get In the Game: Do Meaningful Work You Love

Having the ability to be free is just one part of the equation. The other part is actually being free.

If you’ve ever read anything by Robert Kiyosaki, you know that he has a passion for teaching people why they need to wake up about money. If anything, in the book he released with Donald Trump in 2006, he mentioned why he believes that we should be interested in being “rich”.

Basically it’s this: the government is going to go bankrupt. (It kinda has already. Several times, in fact. When we raised the debt ceiling and printed more money.  Also, there’s that part about China bailing us out again and again.)

Essentially they’re saying, “If you don’t have the money to keep up with the inflation and higher tax rates, you’re going to sink lower and lower.”

Think about it for a second. People still make the same amount that we did back in 2006, but things are more expensive. This is why McDonald’s workers want higher pay. They literally can’t survive on those wages where they live.

In other books by Robert, he talks about the real reason you need to be interested in being wealthy. It simply gives you options in life.

McDonald’s was never designed to give a person a wage for the rest of their life. I’m sure the percentage of people who want to flip burgers as a career is very small. Historically, who has worked there? People in their first or second job. It was a resume builder for high school kids.

That’s actually not the norm anymore. In fact, where you used to see high school kids working, you just don’t see them anymore at all.

Where’d they go? Well, I’m not certain where they’ve all gone. But I can tell you that some of them have gotten creative! I mean, check out this video for just an example:

 

You can’t tell me that’s not creative! How many kids do you see with YouTube channels? Kids teaching how to do stuff (anything really) on there? Teaching technical stuff about software or hardware? Having a series about dinosaurs? Kids are figuring out the new economy before most “grown ups” are. It’s insane. I mean, even kids in my hometown are getting on the news for selling salt at school. Really? Why can’t we figure this stuff out?

The thing is, though, is that we are figuring it out. Even if it’s slowly. People are getting out of their dead end jobs and doing things they love. Be it a dream job in an organization they care deeply about or starting their own thing.

When we were growing up, we didn’t hear much about entrepreneurs and business owners. Our parents didn’t know anything about it. (Why would they? Jobs were bountiful most of their career.) In fact, I remember a joke on Home Improvement (I think that was the show) that someone was made fun of for being an entrepreneur. I think it was Tim’s brother. He said something about it and was asked “Don’t you mean, professionally unemployed?”. <Insert laugh track>

Entrepreneurs were a small silent minority. Now, we have TV shows like Shark Tank and Undercover Boss that feature heads of companies engaging with the everyday person. We’re slowly being reminded that these people, who were once “untouchables”, are actually people too.

Case in point:

So just remember, this is a free country. We can be anything we want to be, it’s just a matter of taking the right steps out of our comfort zones.

The hard part is that first step into the unknown.

Once you get on the field, you’ll be addicted.

Homework:

It’s November. 2015 is almost gone already. Was this the year that you were going to apply for that dream gig? How about start that new side business? Or even go full time with the one you’ve been working on? We’d love to hear about any of the activities you’re thinking about moving forward with.

Share below with what you’ve been putting off. We might be able to help!

AoL 006: Helping Veterans Become Entrepreneurs with Joe Crane

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Imagine you have been groomed to think and act a certain way for several years. Most of us have, it’s called formal education. Now imagine that you voluntarily signed up for this training to be part of something bigger than yourself? That you wanted to serve your country in the best way you know how? That’s what our veterans have done.

Now think back to when you first got out of school. I remember that it was a difficult time. I didn’t have the job that I was supposed to have. Nor did I have the network that I should have had either.

The same can be said for many of our vets as well. Many of them have lived a life that is cut off from the rest of society. The time that they do have off, they’ve spent with their family or friends. Why not? Their job at the time was pretty much 24/7 and they might have never seen those people again.

In today’s podcast, we speak with Joe Crane who is a veteran of the Marines. He spent over 20 years in the Marines as a Super Cobra pilot. Today, he is a commercial pilot, but while he’s not doing that, he hosts a podcast called Veteran on the Move.

Not only does Joe help fellow veterans adjust to civilian life, but he has a focus in helping those veterans become entrepreneurs. He believes that many of the skills that he learned in the military transfer very well to owning his own business, so he hopes that other veterans can see that in themselves as well.

Are you a veteran who’s wondering what your next step in life is? Or do you know a veteran who is kind of treading water after getting out of the military? Then check this session out and see if Joe can assist.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • How Joe’s many transitions in his career helped him to see things differently.
  • Why Joe started podcasting in the first place.
  • How he helps people make the transition from being in the military to being an entrepreneur.
  • How he’s able to live a balanced life between being a dad, a pilot, and doing his podcast.
  • Why he uses SMART goes to get things done (check out session 5 for a definition of SMART goals)
  • What he feels the difference is between having a J.O.B. and being an entrepreneur is.
  • What skills he has obtained as a Marine which have helped him succeed as an entrepreneur.
  • His advice to those who just gotten out of school or the military who are struggling with their identity.
  • …and much more

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

ITEMS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRA:

Are you a member of the military now or a veteran? Joe wants to let you know about a program that might be a fit for you to get ahead in your career. It’s called American Corporate Parters’ Mentoring Program. He and Brian have both been able to get mentors that are where they want to be in their careers. Personally, I’m a little jealous! Sounds like a really great resource. So check it out!

Thanks for Listening!

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, and/or Podbean. It’s absolutely free to do so.

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

Cheers!

How to Find Your Voice

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Let’s start with a story by Brendon Burchard as he recounts his days as being a TA back in college:

I love this message. It’s one of my favorite inspirational messages about getting confidence in one’s self. After hearing this story, it’s so easy to understand how developing your voice can boost your self confidence. I know first hand.

Finding Your Voice Helps You Gain Confidence

There was a time where I couldn’t say a word in front of a classroom. In fact, it was hard for me to just read in class.

I was literally afraid of what people thought of me. If I made a goof up in my reading, I believed they’d think “Oh, that’s just John being John. What a screw up!” Little did I think about the kids who really were bad at reading but they didn’t care as much as I did.

Later, in college as I was starting to find myself, I was still petrified of what people thought. This was the new me. The real caring me. Sad to say, the more I cared, the worse I did. In fact, I’d say that Speech class, and the two times that I had to defend my major projects (senior and thesis in grad school) were times where I couldn’t help but be a deer in headlights. I knew my future was riding on it and I didn’t want to screw up. So, like anyone else that is seriously focused on their responsibility, I over compensated and did worse than I would have if I hadn’t had tried to be perfect.

After graduation, I became an algebra instructor a year later. There’s a couple things about that. First, I hadn’t had algebra in 7 years at that point. And second, I was still deathly worried about speaking in front of people. Let alone, a classroom of people. However, I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. So I had to deal with this problem.

In the end, teaching algebra for a couple of years taught me how to be myself in front of others. I believe that doing it repeatedly finally made me face my fear and deal with it. Was I the best? No. But was I able to break that “Deer in headlights” look? You bet.

How You Can Find Your Voice

You know, I’m sure there are other ways that people have found their voice over the years. But I just wanted to share with you how I was able to find mine while teaching algebra.

  • Accept that you have one. You know, many times I hear people talking about how no one ever showed that they cared about what that person had to say. This was the case in Brendon’s story. Well, John Maxwell has a saying that I think covers a lot of things, not just leadership. He says, “People don’t know how much you know, until they know how much you care”. This saying exactly reflects what Brendon did for his student. Likewise, when I focused on the fact that I had students that needed me to teach them how to do a certain skill to pass a class and the fact that they relied on me to teach them that skill, that’s when I started realizing that not only did I have a voice, but my voice mattered. If I did not realize that they relied on me, I probably would have been a horrible teacher.
  • Learn How to Be Present and Listen to the world around you. What do others say that you’re knowledgable about? What do others ask you about all the time? Knowing the answers to these two questions should help you realize that you have a certain subject and subjects that you can teach others about.
  • Realize that you know what you know. This was my major hang up. I focused so much on making sure that I knew everything and all the little questions that I wasn’t able to focus on the big picture – that people were comprehending what I was saying. Did people comprehend what I was teaching? It’s ok to not know the answer sometimes if it makes you more understandable. You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to be to convey your message in a way that resonates. It’s ok if your audience ask questions. It’s called feedback.
  • Be Relatable. Speaking of resonating, another part of having an impactful voice is to be authentic. I can tell you that if I was just regurgitating everything that was in the book, I probably wasn’t focusing too much on what the students were asking. So, I had to make sure that I was relatable. While I struggled at times, I found that the more stories or examples I used in class to explain a concept, the more likely the students were to understand what I was talking about. That said, how can you be relatable in your voice? In other words, how can you keep yourself from sounding like a robot?
  • Take Your Time. There’s a certain truth about things being rushed. What results have you had when you’ve been rushed? Some say that they do well under pressure. That might be ok with you. Personally, I know I haven’t had as good as results when I’m rushed vs not being rushed. Last week, we released a podcast about being proactive vs being reactive. Those who work reactively are more than likely being rushed to accomplish something. On the other hand, those that are working proactively do so in a more leisurely manner. Either way, when you take your time to get your message out, then you come across as being confident with what you’re saying. This will earn you more listeners.

 

Homework:

If you really want to find your voice and figure out why people should be listening to you, try the above. You might not have a class that you can teach, but there are other organizations that will allow you to practice speaking. One of those is Toastmasters. There’s chapters all around the world.

Another idea would be to simply create your own group or meetup. As it grows, you’d know everyone that became part of the group. Or, if you don’t want to wait that long, you can join another one. As you get to know more people in the group, you might not be so afraid of them over time.

If you’re someone who recently was able to find their voice. We’d love to hear from you, too! How’d you do it? What steps did I leave out above that would help someone else build their confidence?

AoL 003: 6 Key Methods in Dealing with Frustrating People

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This week’s session is a topic session. If you’re familiar with the Fizzle Show at Fizzle, then you’ll be familiar with the format of this particular show.

That said, in this session we talk about dealing with frustrating people. You know, people can frustrate us for a number of reasons and a number of ways. Maybe they’re not doing something a certain way. Maybe they’ve let things get out of control. Perhaps they’re not making the experience as enjoyable as it could be. People just rub us the wrong way sometimes.

The key is that you don’t want to come across as the perpetrator by acting out. So these methods (or maybe they’re steps or ways…?) will hopefully help you to not only deal with the person, but keep you sane in the process.

Do you have any annoyingly frustrating people in your life? Perhaps you’re wondering if you need to kick them out of it all together? Listen in today as we discuss the process of coping with those that would drive you crazy.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:

  • 6 Key Methods of Dealing with Frustrating People (Did I mention they’re key?)
  • Why you should probably only focus on 5 of those methods (the last one is a doozie!)
  • Why it’s important on the issue and not the other person.
  • Why it’s important to not take seriously what others think of you.
  • and much more!

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

ITEMS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

SHOW NOTE EXTRA:

If you’re ever considering doing a podcast, you might want to know that it’s good form to have about 8 sessions ready for the “launch” date. There’s a couple of reasons for this. One, 8 weeks is how long a podcast can be on New & Noteworthy on the iTunes Store. Also, to get on that New & Noteworthy listing, you want to have released 3 or 4 sessions close to each other at the beginning. It’s also good to give yourself a few weeks of buffer so that if you have conflicts arise, you won’t be losing an entire week during the start of your show. Record in bunches if at all possible! (This is the reason that I referred to a post that was released 5 weeks ago! Gotta get ready for that launch.)

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining me 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 and Stitcher. It’s absolutely free to do so.

A huge thank-you to you guys for joining us as we embark on this journey.

Cheers!

Giving Yourself a Chance to Succeed at Being 1 of 10 Business Archetypes

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But First a June 2015 Update…

Hope you’re all having a awesome mid June. Mine is progressing interestingly. Things are going smoothly with the development of the podcast. I believe I have the intro to the point where I’m going to be happy with it. Can’t wait to get started “interviewing” which will commence very soon, I’m sure!

I use quotes with interviewing because I’m still thinking about what kind of format the podcast is going to be in. I listened to Pat’s recent session with Michael O’Neal from the Solopreneur Hour and one of the things that stuck with me was his format. I enjoyed it quite a bit… and frankly I think it fits the style of what I’m trying to do here. So, as of now, I’m leaning more towards just chatting with guests similar to what he does there. So check out his podcast if you’re curious in how that might work.

So somewhere I had that…

Oh yeah. Speaking of podcasts, one I heard probably a month or two ago now is the Fizzle Show session 91 via our friends over at Fizzle.co. In that particular episode, they spoke about 10 Business Archetypes that use an online presence to build their business. Here’s the quick run down of the list:

  • The Teacher
  • The Thought Leader
  • The Mediapreneur
  • The Freelancer
  • The Coach
  • The Artist
  • The Maker
  • The Curator
  • The Engineer and…
  • The Retailer

Now, if you’re looking to start a business, you should probably consider which of these you’re more than likely going to be. Each one will use internet marketing differently to get customers. The teacher is going to make and sell their own digital products online, while the Artist might have online products but more than likely will lean heavier on marketing. Also, believe it or not, there’s different strategies that the teacher and thought leader uses than the mediapreneur will use. (Which… without listening, they probably all sound the same! They’re not. :))

First Thing’s First: Give Yourself a Chance by Focusing

To be successful as any of the names on the list, you’ll need to give yourself a chance to be successful. Just like anything you start, you’ll want to make sure that you FOCUS on being just one. This is really important. Focus on One subject. One project. One product. One Thing. Just because you could cram for tests in school doesn’t mean that that “skill” correlates to the real world.

In the past, I have tried to focus on several things at one time. Nothing ever got done well that way. A good example was in 2012 when I was trying to teach part time, be a coach, learn from the Foundation, have a hand in LTD/Amway (which I still believe is a great opportunity) and build New Inceptions. Yeah… don’t do that.

Here I am, three years later… and ::cough:: yeah. Say this with me: Focus. Is. Key.

Now that I’m sitting comfortably using Fizzle as my community and working specifically on building New Inceptions, my work ethic has been the best it’s been in a long while… maybe since grad school (which is saying something!).

Tired of Goals? Try Having None

Another thing I’m trying (at least partially) in building New Inceptions is something suggested on Zen Habits: having no goals. Or as Leo says it The Best Goal is No Goals. The idea is simple: Just Do. Don’t worry about some made up list. Just pursue your passion and the result will be great.

I believe that’s kinda what I’m doing. I’m currently going through a Building A Blog that Matters Course via Fizzle. Each week I get an email of new things I should do that week. But you know what? Each time a new email comes to me, I look at it as a suggestion of things I could be doing that week. A reminder if you will. What’s funny, is that many times I find myself seeing things I’ve already done.

I’m feel that as long as I have a framework to work in, it’s all good. Keeping metrics and recordings actually hinders my creativity.

What Leo says is true in the same post: “In the end, I usually end up achieving more than if I had goals, because I’m always doing something I’m excited about. But whether I achieve or not isn’t the point at all: all that matters is that I’m doing what I love, always.”

So my question to you this week is simply this:

What are you doing to make sure your project, business, and/or other work is getting worked on? Have you had problems with focusing in the past? Chime in the comments below. Also, if you think what I’ve said is bogus, let me know that too!