A major goal of most marketers is to become an authority within their niche. Why? Because people trust, respect and make purchases from authority figures. One excellent way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise is to provide case studies. A well-written case study will help you position yourself as an authority. Case studies are compelling because they provide concrete evidence or proof of how well a product or service works.
There are two basic kinds of case studies that you can put together, both of which we will examine in this article: The customer based case study and the information based case study.
How to do a customer-based case study
A customer case study is a great way to demonstrate the value of a product or service. Potential buyers naturally trust other customers. This is known as social proof, and it is a very powerful marketing tool. If you have done your market research prior to launching your product or service, you have identified a problem to solve. In the case study, you’ll want to show how your product or service solves this problem.
The key to a great customer case study is detail. Provide concrete evidence such as before and after numbers, percentages and statistics. Data provides concrete proof, which builds credibility. Consider the following two sentences.
“Our sales increased after we used ABC Marketing System.”
“After three weeks of using the ABC Marketing System, we saw traffic and sales increase by 20 percent.”
Which of these two is more strong and convincing?
The second sentence is automatically more credible because it gives specific numbers. “Sales increased by 20 percent.”
Once your case study is written, you can make it more accessible by formatting it for readability. Use info-graphics, images or a slideshow. Break up your text with headers and bullet-points as well.
How to do an information case study
The first step in an information case study is to identify a problem that is related to your niche. Search forums, social media and Q&A sites to find questions that people are asking. A great candidate for a case study is a question that comes up frequently, but there are very few answers being offered.
Once you have a question or problem to solve, do a Google search and study the questions being asked and the quality of the answers. Take notes on the various tips and select the best, most interesting and creative ones.
Next, try out the tips yourself, and gather information on the results. Write up an article that details your experiment. Be sure to include screenshots and images that show exactly how you came up with your results. You earn bonus points if you create a video case-study.
Monitoring the social media marketing landscape is vital to your success. If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
Connection. I have seen this word bandied about here there and everywhere. Connection. It would appear Connection is the new holy grail of daily living. Connecting is now helpful or soothing or necessary for life contentment. Now I won’t begrudge anyone who has found a coping mechanism that is necessary and works. But my experience leads me to call bullshit on the concept of connection.
Connection implies a duality, or a separateness that exists only in the mind. There must be a you, and something outside of you, to which you want to connect. If you feel disconnected, whatever that feels like for you, you are living in the illusion of duality as a reality. When I feel sad, or fearful, or angry, or melancholy, I feel it. I don’t feel disconnected. Disconnected, I suggest, is more psycho babble created to divert us from the real feelings of life, like being sad, fearful, angry or melancholy. I am suggesting there is nothing to fix and no connection to achieve. The surest way to the other side of these feelings is through them. Jumping on a cushion to meditate, or having a drink, or a quick romp, or an Orange Is The New Black binge watching session may alleviate the feelings, but you really haven’t moved your spirit any closer to the realization of your true nature, for which connection has no place.
This is all a symptom of our huge obsession with intoxication on life. Our normal state is deemed not enough, so we create all of these things to do and see and buy and penetrate to keep the truth at bay. Life isn’t all bliss. Life is hard. Life is tension. Sometimes we are too smart for our own good. Instead of feeling our lives, we work ever so hard to change our state, running from fear and pain and suffering, and chasing love and pleasure and bliss. The only problem with this is our lives are now dependent on external circumstances over which we ultimately have no control. Perhaps it is time to go inward
Clearly, this is a first world problem. How wonderful that we don’t really have to worry about having clean water to drink, or having enough food to sustain our bodies, nor a virus like Ebola to contend with. Instead, we can set our sights on realizing god within us and there is no connection necessary. Instead of connecting, what is called for is transcending. So the challenge then becomes, what can we do to achieve this abiding awareness.
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”
Henry David Thoreau
I am suggesting the solution is not getting intoxicated on bliss, or adrenalin, or love, or connection, or any substance. Play it straight. Stop chasing and stop running. Can I just be with whatever is put in my life? There is this pernicious belief that life is always supposed to be blissful. This lie is damaging to your spirit. It creates unrealistic expectations that then leads to addictive behavior. Instead, I suggest establishing a routine. Figure out what is important in your life, schedule out each day of the week, and then do your best to stick to it. You will learn pretty quickly when you get off track, when you find yourself chasing something, or running from something.
My routine right now while I am living in Thailand is this. I awake at 2:30 am. I shower, shave, make the bed, brew the coffee, drink my protein shake, and begin work at 3. I work until 9, then walk down to eat breakfast of iced coffee and fried chicken. At 11:00 I workout by walking 4 miles and then swimming for half an hour. Out in the Andaman Sea, I float for about 10 minutes and meditate. I grab a simple lunch of barbeque chicken and a fruit smoothie. Back home to shower, and then to my favorite coffee shop to write and create on my computer for 2 hours. The rest of my day is rest and dinner and then to bed between 7 and 8. That is my Monday – Friday schedule. My weekend are very open, very fluid, and very rejuvenating. When I find myself veering off this path, I know I am chasing something, or running from something. When I am doing nothing but living my life, magic happens. Worlds open up.
My truth is this. There is nothing and nobody to connect with. God is everywhere, and I am part of everywhere, so I must one with, not one separate from. It is impossible to connect to myself because I am already myself. Again, it is a belief that I am separate from everybody and everything that leads to a desire to connect. It is not real. It is not supportive of you or your awakening to your real life. Instead, you are choosing to live in some sort of fantasyland.
Have you never walked the streets and felt yourself in everybody and everything that you saw. That is true. If you want to feel fear, then feel separate. Instead, play with the concept that you are one and the world is the same one. I understand you may not feel it, but that is how it truly is. The masters have confirmed this. Fake it for a while, and then you will have a moment, a crystalline clear realization that duality is an illusion. It will all make sense. You will most likely weep.
So, connect if you like. Chase after rainbows and unicorns. I am suggesting there is a more disciplined approach to life that will get you where you are going faster. If you like chasing and running, keep on doing it. As a very skilled change state artist myself, I found it all very addictive. The thrill of it, the feelings of accomplishment, the bliss of ignorance, and the adulation of those around me seemed to feed me for quite a significant portion of my life. This path, the path, is none of that. It is quiet, inward, intuitive, reflective, conscious, patient, enduring and real. Is it your path?
Live life. Love life. This is an invitation to try it on for size. Those that came before us, the wisest of men and women, have said that duality is an illusion. We do live in a state of oneness. So why not try it? When you’re with somebody and they say something that that upsets you, realize it is you that is saying something that upset you. You are the one upset. When you are angry with a situation, realize that you’re being angry with yourself. You are the one who is angry. When you see genius in another, look for that same genius within you. These are the kinds of thoughts to run over in your mind. These thoughts, as Thoreau points out, are the kind you might want to dominate you life and create a deep mental path. They say the truth will set you free. Why not go for it all?
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
What an adventure! I decided to go out a find some butter lamps that I have seen in Buddhist temples. Many people here in Thailand are Buddhist, so there must be someone who sells these ancient relics. I headed off to Phuket town at the advice of Aree who oversees the house in which I am living. Instead of taking a taxi, I decided to really go local and take the blue and white bus that goes from Phuket to Kamala, with stops right in front of my house. The last key ingredient to mix in to this adventure is rain, monsoon type rain, rain with thunder, rain that comes down in buckets. In fact, it is like the ice bucket challenge without the ice or bucket.
Off I went, stopping at the local cell phone place to top up my minutes. Next I swung by the grocery store to pick up a plastic covering to battle the rain. I had seen people wearing these on their scooters, and around my neighborhood, so I made my 21 Baht purchase. Next I found a nice place to wait by the side of the road to catch the bus. There aren’t any bus stops like you see in America. Instead, you have to wildly wave your arms and get the driver’s attention, or else wait another half hour or so for the next bus. I got his attention. On the bus I got, and off we went to the town of Phuket.
I got off the bus and was assaulted by taxi and tuk tuk drivers asking me if I needed a ride. I waved my hand, kept walking, and looked for a place to eat and get my bearings. I found a wonderful little café with real lattes and delectable deserts. I sat down for a while, enjoyed my latte while images of America floated through my head. The place even had a picture of John Lennon on the wall. After my montage of sepia toned memories, I was thrust back into Phuket, Thailand as thunder cracked and the heavens opened up. My goal was to aimlessly walk around, stopping in at shops in search of butter lamps, scarves, candles, incense and tingshas (Tibetan bells, which I forgot to bring to Thailand and use to begin and end my meditations).
I got so wet that no part of me was dry. Drenched. Not only is it raining, but wearing the 21 Bhat plastic cover created a sauna type environment for my body. I had buckets of rain pelting me while rivers of sweat were running down my body. All I could do was laugh, walk the streets, accept the rain and the sweat, and surrender to the elements. I walked. I got wet. I visited shops. I laughed. Others laughed with me. I did find one great shop that had some of the things on my list. I purchased a gorgeous green patterned scarf and my biggest find was a set of antique tingshas, which are at least 50 years old. What a powerful and sustained sound they have!
I had wondered about 3 miles from the bus drop off point, and I had 90 minutes to get back. I was lost, and just started walking. The rains poured down. I stopped for another latte, and this woman knew her espresso and foam stuff. Look at the pattern, the nice little cookies, and even green tea on the side. It was one of those moments, when everything tastes perfect, the environment is just right, and having endured miles of walking in the rain, I felt I deserved this special moment for myself.
Onward. Keep walking. Found a bus. Waved wildly. I had returned to the bus stop (a place on the road where the buses wait for passengers) and waited 45 minutes until we left. It was remarkable how much more, I observed, the Thai people live in the moment, not as lost in thought and opinion, as my American brothers and sisters. I admit that I was focused on the amount of time I was sitting on that bus waiting to leave. “When are we getting out of here?” I would think to myself. “I am wet, and tired, and want to get home!” Then I noticed the other people on the bus. They were talking, laughing, playing with their cell phones, and not seemingly concerned in the least about when we departed. It was an stirring reminder of not living in the past or the future, but living in the right here and right now. My life is what’s happening right now. And at that moment, I was sitting on a bus.
Got home after 45 minutes on the bus. Stopped for some milk at the grocery store. Stopped at the local food cart for some takeaway dinner. Finally got home at 6:30. Took a good long shower. Ate my dinner. Got a massage. Looked at my scarf and tingshas, and tried on my new t-shirt which I had bought in Phuket to swap out with my dripping wet button down. With a feeling of complete exhaustion, I crawled into bed. What a day! There were so many moments and memories. It was a wonderful adventure, physically challenging, emotionally satisfying and spiritual uplifting. As always, I am feeling blessed and grateful for this experience called life. And I am living it now.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
This weekend, I spent 2 days with some close friends at Dillon Beach in Northern California. We shared a simple two-story house close to the beach. The food was outstanding, the conversation was inquisitive, and the hot tub was soothing. We took a few walks down to the Pacific Ocean, which always opens up big questions for me as I look out and observe the infinite nature of our world. I began to ask myself this question: Where do I begin?
As I march through this life, and learn bit by fiery bit, to tame my ego, it seems clear that I am not the chattering voice that wants to control everything. I am not the one that demands “Look at me!” Rather I am that inner voice, the observer, the listener, the one that responds rather than reacts. I am the one that I discover each and every day that I meditate. I am the one that can share a moment with another, and not talk, not demand, not need, and feel in-tune and connected.
So I thought. I began to question this belief.
Is that me? Is any of it, me?
Maybe I am giving myself too much credit (something for which my ego is very proficient). Perhaps I am nothing more than a spark of consciousness, as I do have an awareness of this one called Jay. Maybe all that inner voice and observer labeling is nothing more than a different aspect of ego. Perhaps I am nothing but a composite amalgam resulting from the forces that have weighed upon me from the beginning of my earthly existence. Where I live, who I spend my time with, what I spend my time doing, what country I am in, these seem to be the things that have forged me into me. It has been, for the great majority, a choice-less existence. Perhaps I am nothing more than a spirit inside a body suit that has been shaped and tempered by innumerable forces, both gross and subtle.
I believe so.
What I am now seeing clearly is that life has been far more mechanical, and predictable than I had ever imagined. I had a vision of all of us as machines, plodding through life, all doing the same things. This shift in awareness is infinitely freeing. It feels like I am a goldfish that has been pulled out of the water so I can look back and see that I have been in a fish tank all this time, and there is a whole new world to be explored. This new world shows up as an invitation to freely think outside of the box and uninhibitedly create. I can do what I want, and create the type of life I have envisioned, for by understanding this dynamic, I am freed of it.
I began at birth, and from that point, I stopped, and life happened. Now freed of that construct, I can choose to co create a reality based on spirit and flow. This is exciting. This feels fundamental. This shatters the perception of free will. Who among us is really free? This is a complete shift in context that will take some getting used to.
Where do I begin? Perhaps I don’t, or didn’t begin. Something began, but it wasn’t me. Perhaps I am but a channel through which energy flows. Perhaps my roles are to be sensitive to the energy, and flow with it, and not resist it, and breathe. What will a life look like without the fear and struggle? I don’t know, but I am willing to find out.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
On August 15th I will be heading toward Asia, and landing in Phuket, Thailand, jumping into the great unknown. I plan to be there during our winter months and returning to Northern California in spring 2015. It is a great adventure, with much to be revealed. While my soul has come to accept and embrace this uprooting, my ego is resisting. I can feel its confusion, its desire for security, and its ever-present and well-known fear of the unknown.
Some days I imagine myself scuba diving in crystal clear water, warm water teeming with gorgeous sea life. I envision a long lazy Saturday sitting on a beach, tanning myself, eating ripe fruit and grilled, just caught, fish, and rejuvenating like never before. I foresee hanging out with my new local friends, learning how to cook Thai food for myself and for others. Yes, I see these pictures in my head, and know that they will mostly materialize in due time.
Other days, I imagine myself in my bungalow, with my children and family and friends some 8,000 miles away. I know there will be moments of longing for carnitas from the taco truck, and the laughter of loved ones sitting across the table from me. There will be days in which I will not want to write, and won’t have anything planned, and will be tired of working, and stretching and meditating and cooking and diving, and even in Thailand, I will be bored.
In the end, life is life, here and there, in Sebastopol, CA and Phuket, Thailand. This trip is not an escape for me, but rather it is a dive into the unknown. Thailand is an arrow straight through my heart, a powerful choice to leave here, and find more of me there. The life of a monk, as I imagine it, is simple yet challenging, with moments of bliss few will ever experience, followed by hellish walks through the desert of lost souls. It is those journeys, which inform the bliss. Soon it will be time for me, once again, to put on my walking shoes.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
There is a profound beauty inherent in every moment. It is an aching awareness, an excruciatingly profound knowing that this life, this experience, right now, is precious. The more you slow things down and find that still center in the heart of your being, the more you will come to experience life on life’s terms. Therein lies the gorgeous beauty of our existence. When you get beyond the celebrations, the self-congratulations, and the extravagances, there you may find the mountainous presence of this exact moment. It is so subtle, and yet not. When you feel it, you will be forever changed.
Life is not an experience to be dominated. Rather, it is a dance, a romantic give and take, a love affair with the unknown. Life, which I’ll refer to as She, She has so much to offer. We are called upon to be receptive and open to attract her precious gifts: love, bliss, grace, connection, and the incredible self-knowledge that no matter what happens, life has your back. There is a freedom to letting it all go, and allowing the white rapids of life to take you and show you exactly who and what you are in a way that will wash away all fears and concerns.
Life is patiently waiting. Life has always been waiting. One day you will jump. It is inevitable for that is the way the river flows. When you are ready, you will show up. It starts by getting honest about the role you play in your life. It starts by eating some humble pie, and acknowledging the precarious nature of our existence. It starts by surrendering to life, and thereby getting into greater alignment with life. She will forge a partnership that has an unbreakable bond. In this partnership, you get out of the way and allow life, in all her power and glory, to work through you. It’s a tacit agreement that you will serve as a conduit, fully aware that your gifts and accomplishments truly are not your own.
She calls upon us to be vulnerable, soft, willing, and purposefully aware. Then the dance will begin in earnest, the dance of life which starts with one conscious breath. These are life’s terms. This is life’s promise to you. The invitation remains at your doorstep.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
I was asked recently to write about the path of joy. I said to myself (with a duplicitous smile on my face)…. “The What?”
Oh, yes, of course, joy. Having a good time. Enjoying myself. Bringing a smile to the face of others. Feeling a lightness of being. While this is not my normal operating system, I do know joy. I have experienced its elusive and always glorious nature. Still, joy feels like a foreigner in a foreign land.
Take a deep breath here Mr. Jay. You may actually enjoy this.
If I remember the best sex I ever had, there it is. Joy. Actually, if I remember just about any sex I have had, there it is! If I remember the birth of any of my children, there it is. If I remember how I feel after an initiation ritual, there it is. If I remember how I feel after making a big sale, there it is. If I remember sitting around a campfire with my close friends, there it is. If I remember how I felt when I looked at the scale, and I had achieved my 3-month weight loss goal, there it is again.
Now it is the time for joy in all it’s glory: ongoing, ever lasting, and full on.
I notice that all my joy comes as a result of an experience, or the memory of those experiences. Seems I have never been much of a “smell the roses” kind of guy. Growing up as a male in America, I was taught to have goals, work hard, achieve great things, and then take on the next project. There was never much emphasis (actually none) on joy. And I know I am not alone. Having spent 15 years of my life in transformational weekend events, I can tell you there is not much joy amongst the brothers.
I call in joy. I call in my joy. I am too old to do things I do not want to do. If I want to do something, then I will do it with joy in my heart. I call in joy that is not dependent on a situation, an accomplishment, nor another. I call in joy as my way of being. Today I say to myself: “I am joy!” While this will no doubt make some of my buddies want to vomit, I am too old and too tired to keep pushing a boulder up a hill. Rather, I will follow the boulder down the other side of the hill, and smile all the way to the end.
Taking a stand for joy requires some courage. Dare to be happy. This affirmation will require discipline. This way of being is not for the dramatic, the emotional, nor the weak. It takes some balls to say I choose joy. Try it out and really mean it. Just for today, greet every experience with joy. When your husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend does that thing they do that you hate so much, greet it with joy. Transform your experience. When you lose that sale that you were counting on, bring joy rather than disappointment. When the waiter brings you a cold hamburger, can you experience joy rather than anger? When you realize this life, this one glorious life that you have, when you realize it is all going to come to an end, can you still greet each day with joy? Through heartache and betrayal, through hurt and failure, will you chose joy?
There was a time when I thought talk of joy was utter bullshit. I would say to my brothers, life is about challenge, life is about burning, and unearthing those searing bits of my unconscious, and reliving past painful events, so as to become the hollow bone through which spirit may freely flow. I have done all that. It was hard, and at times, brutally painful, and it required a powerful vision to stay the path. Occasional exuberance was a welcome by product of the work. However, as one who has walked the path for three decades, I can now say there could have been more joy. Hell, there could have been a whole bunch more joy. I am not one to lament the past, but there is a truth to be gleaned from my own experiences. I never chose joy in the past. Today I choose joy.
I tell you, I hear you snickering on the sidelines. I know well of your feelings of derision. “Has he lost his mind?”
Yes I have.
It is about time!
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
What does it take to be a successful Internet marketer? This is a very powerful question. Right now there are millions of people grappling with the opportunity of the Internet. Baby boomers, now reaching retirement, many decimated by the financial collapse of 2008, are looking for a way to maintain their lifestyle without going to work as a greeter at Wal-Mart. The job market is tough out there. 50 and 60 year olds have a challenging time competing against 20 and 30 year olds. An investment of time and effort on an employer’s part will pay bigger dividends with a younger protégé who has a working life of 30 or 40 years, rather than 5 to 10 years.
It is not only boomers that are seizing the opportunity of the Internet. Whiz kids, as they are called, breeze onto the scene, figure out this or that, put something together, and on pure guts and some braggadocio, manage to create multi million dollar enterprises. Single moms, people fed up with the rat race, the commute, the parking, the office politics, the belligerent boss, everyone is getting in on the action, working at home, face in front of a blank computer screen, trying to figure this Internet thing out.
Why do some make it, and some don’t? We are back to our original inquiry. Let’s look at the key components: financial backing, experience, work ethic, talent, and mindset. I have been prospecting, interviewing, hiring and training individuals for the past 20 years. I am currently working as an Internet marketing coach working with over 100 individuals at a time. (Click here if you would like to work directly with me, only $49 to get started). What I am about to share is based on my experience, and the shared experience of those who have also spent many years evaluating potential.
Financial Backing. Many people come into Internet Marketing with no money what so every. That is to say, they begin working with me as their coach with the first words out of their mouth being, “I don’t have any money, thank you for this opportunity!” I have other clients who state in their application that they have in excess of $10,000 to invest in their business opportunity. It is misleading to say that the wealthier client is the better client simply because they have money to spend. The truth is that the wealthier client has demonstrated a disciplined life in which saving a percentage of funds has been practiced. This is an important aspect of mindset which we’ll cover later. Still, I am here to report that either one of my clients, broke as a joke and well funded, both of them have a nearly equal shot at being an internet marketing success. For once an individual has a clear picture of what is possible and available with the Internet marketing lifestyle, raising the money becomes just another task to complete on the road to success.
Experience. I have some clients that have been involved in Internet marketing for years. They have a list, they know about Facebook advertising, pay per click, solo ads, and squeeze pages. Others come to me with absolutely no experience. None. Sure they know how to check emails, search the Internet, and listen to music on Pandora, but they know nothing about split tests, the industry, nor the true potential of the Internet marketing lifestyle. Truly, I don’t have a preference. On the one hand, the experienced marketer will clearly see the strength of a given opportunity. They may have a large list, and are simply looking for a powerful product with a strong profit margin to share with their list. However, many experienced marketers know a bit too much for their own good. They over analyze, and before you know it, they have discarded an amazing opportunity because of an earlier bad experience. Contrast that to a “newbie” who only sees the potential, the opportunity, the glass half full. The newbie will ask a few questions, questions designed to promulgate progress. They see a bright and shining light in the future, and move toward it unfettered by past experiences.
Work Ethic. This is very important. I need someone who will work. I don’t care if you read the 4 Hour Work Week. I am a huge fan of Tim Ferris, but when you are getting started at anything, it requires massive action to achieve some level of momentum to get the whole project started. When a man is pushing a huge boulder up a hill, first there is a bit of a time when the boulder actually rolls backwards while we are adjusting to its weight. Then we must marshal all of our strength, and with consistent pressure, push hard and strong to get that boulder rolling uphill. As we continue to push, the incline of the hill seems to mellow. Some will then stop, or slow down, and that is the time when someone with a disciplined work ethic will truly seize the day. I can’t work with lazy. It doesn’t work.
Talent. I will take someone with a strong work ethic over someone with talent each and everyday of the week. I see so much wasted talent in the world. There are talented people who have “issues”, are lazy, feel entitled, are used to getting much for little work in school and in life. When I find talent coupled with a good work ethic, there is tantalizing potential. Still, there is something far more important than anything we have covered thus far.
Mindset. They key to Internet marketing success, and some would say for any kind of success, is your mindset. Mindset may be defined as the way you think about and experience or perceive the world around you. Merriam Webster defines mindset as: a particular way of thinking, a person’s attitude or set of opinions about something. A person may have talent, a strong work ethic, impressive past experiences, and still, if that person has a lousy mindset, he is destined to fail. Some see the glass half empty, while others see it as half full. But mindset is much more than have a positive outlook on life.
Mindset determines how one address challenges, setbacks, rejection and failure. My old teacher, Stuart Wilde, use to tell me often that people live in a prison of their own mind. The prison door is not locked. All it takes is the intention, or the will, to push the door open and walk out into the light. We have all met people who have a poor mindset. For these people, everything is a problem. Mired in frustration and self doubt, life is dark, and possibilities for the future evaporate into thin air.
This blog is dedicated to those of us who harbor a glimmer of hope, who understand the importance of the space between our ears, who are committed to establishing a powerful mindset, a mindset that frees us of the bonds of this earthly existence, and allows us to achieve those things we most desire in this life. This is what I am calling the dot com mindset. The dot com mindset, once fully developed, allows anyone to have the four freedoms: financial freedom, time freedom, geographical freedom, and most importantly, spiritual freedom.
We all want to have money. We all need to have money in order to survive. You may hate money, think it is the root of all evil, but if you are going to have much of a life here on earth, you have to come to terms with the role of money in your life. The goal of most of the clients I coach is to be debt fee, to have enough money to meet the basic needs of home, food, utilities, and transportation. Most also want a bit more to allow for a few extravagances, perhaps a dream car or a couple of vacations, and a bit left over for some sort of charity. How free are you?
The concept of slavery is abhorrent to most. The idea of being subservient to another is anathema to the soul. Yet most live a life beholden to a job, a church, a government, and a relationship, all of which impact your time. Are you free to get on an airplane today, for example, and fly to Morocco to visit a sick friend? Can you take a month off, kick it on a beach in Spain, and recharge your batteries? For those with time freedom, these situations represent opportunities, and not unfathomable scenarios. How free are you?
Do you live where you want to live? Have you ever even asked yourself the question? I never did until traveling in Europe, walking in Leister Square, and saying to my partner, “We could live here!” 4 months later, we moved to England and lived in the English countryside for a year. It is a big world out there, and most won’t venture far beyond their own shores, missing out on the experiences that far away and distant lands hold for you. How free are you?
How high do you allow your spirit to fly? Have you walked through Zen’s gateless gate? Have you spent any real time getting still, allowing your mind to slow down, and feel the true nature of this earthly existence? Have you awaken to the remarkable task and path that lies in front of each and every one of us? Spiritual freedom is difficult to define and shows up differently in each of us. Most, mired in survival, will not ever step foot on the path to awakening. The dot com mindset allows for this most noble of pursuits. Achieving the three previous freedoms will open some doors that may, if not ignored, lead to the inevitable realizations of life. The dot com mindset’s ultimate state is complete spiritual freedom, the type of freedom that allows you to soar, to feel, to move freely, to unshackle all the chains that have been keeping you held hostage to an imaginary captor. The dot com mindset has the potential to lift the veil so that you finally, once and for all, see clearly. How free are you?
What does it take to be a successful internet marketer? It takes a mature relationship with fear. Very little is accomplished in an environment of comfort. Many are familiar with the concept of the comfort zone. If you are not familiar with the comfort zone analogy, imagine a cloud one lives in called the comfort zone. In the comfort zone, you may feel secure, content, pleased with your past accomplishments, and nestled in with your family. Daily life occurs in the comfort zone, but not much else. Real accomplishment takes place outside of the comfort zone. As you may surmise, life outside of the comfort zone is, well, uncomfortable. It feels like you are doing things that you may not know and may not completely understand, and which may make you feel fearful. But many of us march forward in spite of all these unpleasant feelings, because this is how we learn, this is how we grow, and this is how we accomplish great things in our life.
Author David Deida, who wrote a fabulous book entitled The Way of the Superior Man, speaks about the importance of living just at your edge.
“By leaning just beyond your fear, you challenge your limits compassionately, without trying to escape the feeling of fear itself. You step beyond the solid ground of security with an open heart. You stand in the space of unknowingness, raw and awake.”
The Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
Living just at your edge requires one to live with a healthy dose of fear. Fear is a friend we all must get to know, learn to accept, and in fact, are required to embrace. If you do not know fear, you do not know yourself. If you have never pushed yourself beyond your comfort zone, how can you expect anyone else to do the same? In life, in order to be successful, in order to be in a position of freedom, you will need to lead others. The only way to lead others, is to lead by example. There is no other way. We have all been approached by the faker, the one who claims to know the way, yet we all know, he or she has never been that way.
Be friends with your fear. Learn how to breathe through it. Become so adept at fear management that when you feel it, you are enlivened, and now have access to a powerful energy you may harness to do some good not only in your life, but in the world. Learning to deal with fear, and turning fear into your friend, is a powerful component of your mindset. If you want the dot com lifestyle (and really, who doesn’t?), you are going to have to work hard on the dot com mindset. Let’s get underway. Onward.
About the Author
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
Jay Cradeur is an author, blogger, internet marketer, world traveler, and coach. Jay has helped thousands to achieve their dreams of financial independence. As an internet marketing coach with a focus on personal development, Jay may be able to assist you in reaching your goals. You can work with Jay for a 100% refundable fee of $49 by clicking on this link and committing to your future. Work with Coach Jay.
