Category Archives: Commentary

Commentary

Passion to Clarity

A 1914 half-sovereign minted in Sydney
A 1914 half-sovereign minted in Sydney (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Passion. It keeps you on course. It keeps you moving. It brings action and motivation.

When the going gets tough, passion will keep the you going. Where is it that you are going? What is it you want to do? What does done mean?

Enter clarity.

Clarity is how your target is defined. It allows you to know what you seek, what it feels like, how it smells, how it tastes. Clarity defines what you want.

Knowing what you want in life to such a high level is paramount for success, no matter how you choose to define it. Success has to be personally defined. It cannot be defined by someone else. Success is your goals, your dreams, your aspirations. Know what they are. See them. Feel them. Get very, very clear on them.

Clarity cuts through the fog. It leads to understanding. It guides through the rain. Clarity allows action to be well directed. It pushes passion through all obstacles. While passion is the fuel that drives your engine to success, clarity keeps everything running.

Get crystal clear on your goals. See each step. Fully define what you want. Suppose you want a new car. What model? What color? What options? How much work will you need to do to achieve it? How many calls? How many sales? That is clarity. It is more than just the end goal, it is all the steps in between.

Want to sing at the Apollo theater in Harlem? Don’t settle for performing at the local dinner club. See that goal. See the work. Do the work.

That is what clarity does. It pushes aside all the “can’ts” and “wont’s”. Get clear. See your path. Now go.

Commentary

Stop! Get out of the way!

BURLINGTON, ND - JUNE 26: Floodwater nearly c...
(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

Ok, stop! Stop what you are doing! Move over! Be quiet! Yeah, you!

It is time to get real with yourself. You are the reason you do not have success. Yes, you. It is not your circumstances. It is not your lack of education. It is you. It is only you.

Look in the mirror. There you will find the person who is holding you back; there is who is in  your way. There is the obstacle to over come. There is why you don’t have what you want. There is why you don’t succeed.

Yes, it is hard to take. Yes, the journey is unfair. Yes, you have a challenge. Yes, yes, yes.

We get in our own way time after time. We justify to ourselves why we do not have time to do something. We invent excuses why things do not happen. We blame others. We point fingers. We do not take responsibility. Everyone of those actions speaks volumes why we don’t have what we want, don’t have the success, don’t have the lifestyle, don’t have the marriage. All of that. We are the problem.

We are also the solution. You hold the keys to your success. Yes, you. Not some guru on television or the Internet. You and only you. You have to do the work. You have to get the experience. You must obtained the skills. A coach can help guide you, show you direction, point out a weakness. A mentor can show you better ways and better avenues. Only you can take the field. Only you can walk down the road. Your success is your business. It does not belong to someone else. It belongs to you.

See how to get started on your path.

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Commentary

Going the Distance

Reaching success is not a quick trip. It takes dedication and determination. There are pitfalls and problems. There are distractions and detours. The path is not straight. It weaves and forks, zigs and zags. It requires a plan.

From time to time, your determination and dedication will be tested. Obstacles will arise that will seem insurmountable. They will require rethinking and redirection. Having a mentor will greatly help your efforts. The right coaching will teach you need techniques, give you new directions.

Going the distance takes perseverance. Going in the distance in the wrong direction will only result in wasted effort, leading to frustration and emptiness. Get the mentor you need. Get the training you need. Go the distance to Success.

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Commentary

Like, have fun dude!

Over and over, the same mistakes get made when marketing. It matters little if it is a video or a blog post or a capture page. All have the same mistake, the same theme. They are all too serious.

The video

In the video, the person pitching the latest and greatest whatever is well dressed and groomed. Other than their mouth, they hardly move. After all, they have a serious business to offer. They want to be taken seriously. Therefore, they are serious, so they present serious. Is there any other way?

Write to me

Blog posts that fall into the too serious category are long and boring. They ramble on and on, use eloquent and awkward speech, and seem as though their authors have swallowed a Thesaurus. The grammar is near perfect, punctuation correct and don’t have contractions. Readers leave nearly as quickly as the arrive.

Combining all of the worst

The long landing pages combine all of the bad aspects of videos and blog posts. They go on and on. The never-ending text is only interrupted by bad videos. The text is laid to use all the colors of the rainbow, multiple font sizes, bold and underline. The content is bad enough, so the author assaults the reader every which way. Oh good grief.

Have fun

Why all the seriousness? Lighten up a bit. Don’t be sophomoric. Be entertaining! Be Lively! Get your point across clearly in a relaxed manner. Don’t worry about perfection, worry about value. Introduce a comma, splice to see if anyone is paying attention. Sure, get the spell and grammar correct (at least mostly), but not to the point of awkward absurdity. After all, this is a post to get attention and make a connection. It is not a term paper or a doctoral thesis.

Commentary

Tired and Frustrated

I must admit. I am tired. Very tired. I am tired of placing ads, writing blogs, writing articles, pushing tweets, pinning interesting content, making funnels…all to get leads that are not there. Oh, I get clicks. Clicks cost me money. Clicks that not become leads most me more. Arg.

I am tired of seeing others do the same thing. They get clicks. They get leads. Some of the leads convert. They make sales. Yeah, I am excited for them. I am frustrated.

Being tired and frustrated is a part of being an entrepreneur. Being tired and frustrated is part of creating your own path. It is to be expected. It is how you learn where you need direction, where you need to work on  yourself.

Don’t dwell. Admit it. Shout. Move on.

Commentary

Eye On Integrity

Keeping An Eye On Integrity

Integrity: being complete; undivided; focused; true; unimpaired.

Whatever the synonym, integrity is at the center of SMILE. It is at the center of everything done at 5 Point Management. It is at the center to keep us balanced. It is the center of who we are.

Too many people use Integrity as a buzzword. It gets banded about as if it were a shuttlecock in a badminton game on a well groomed lawn. Overused, overstated and under performing. That is how integrity gets pushed today.

Integrity is too key to allow such trivialities. One has to have integrity to last, to be seen as honest and to be a lasting leader. Politicians claim to have it, then display they do not. Scoundrels posing as businessmen claim it, then use practices that are immoral.

Integrity is not something faked. It must be a part of who one is. Must be in the heart. Must be in the mind. It must be the center of everything.

In the word SMILE, the letter I balances the other four. It gives symmetry to the folding point. It is the center. Integrity was chosen for the I in SMILE to remind us, to balance us, to focus us. Integrity is who we are. We are it.

Commentary

Legacy Mastermind Leftovers

What a incredible weekend it has been. Blogging while Justin Woolf was reviewing keyword search and the importance of being precise and drilling into a niche. Advertisement reviews with Sophia Rashkin. Getting videos critiqued by Benny Bells and Kevin Levonas. Being in the Loyal 9 Revolution headquarters. Being with other marketers. Hearing their trials. Learning from their mistakes.

No words can accurately described what the weekend brought. Clarity and peace. Willingness and direction. Longing and anticipation. Such pale terms.

Being with the Loyal 9 and Team Rashkin for a few hours is a privilege. Being with them for a whole weekend? Awesome. Having them training and reviewing your work directly? Priceless. That was this weekend.

Meaningless

All the superlatives in the word are without meaning if no action gets taken afterward. If nothing comes of this weekend, it was only a good time in New Jersey. Action must be taken. Action will be taken.

Now the action has direction. Now the skills to correct, aim again and go are learned. Now the understanding of good marketing has been absorbed. Now is the time. Now is the day. All will be seized. It is all mine.

Your road to the Legacy Mastermind event starts by applying to start your profitable business.

Commentary

Your Keywords Building Your Legacy

Day two of the Legacy Mastermind event is underway at the Loyal 9 Revolution world headquarters. Justin Woolf is discussing keywords and how to use them. Yeah, it’s exciting.

Keywords are an interesting animal. Many people how start an on-line business tend to use phrases like “make money online” or “the best online business” or “reviews of online businesses” or “the best ways to make money in 2012” and so on. All of them suck.

Why? Why don’t they work?

They are too general. They pull in too large an audience. They are targeted at the curious audience, not they buying one. They will bring in too many people. Too many of the wrong people. Your marketing should pull in people who know what they want. People who are looking for what you are selling, not just being curious that you have to convert into a buyer.

Get into a niche.

Who do you want to attract? What do these people look like? What do they do? What do they seek? For whom might they search?

When a person is really serious about making the lifestyle change required to be successful in a business, online or otherwise, they tend to be looking for specific information. They may do a search looking for a review about Robert Kyosaki and the Rich Dad/Poor Dad products. Another possibility is finding a video about a Dani Johnson event or interviews with people who have attended one. Maybe they are into real estate and looking to understand what Russ Dalbey offers with buying and selling property notes. You need to know how they are thinking.

What is the buyer’s story? What is there background? What is their pain? How is your offer, your product, their solution? They need to know you want to help them, not make a sale. Give what they want, what they need, then you will be able to have what you want. Their pain comes first. Solve it.

Legacy is more than just a two day training course. Mere training can be had by other ways. Legacy is about community. It is about entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs. It is about changing lifestyles and direction. It is about making connections that will last a lifetime. Legacy is about you.

Commentary, Commentary

You Are Your Brand, Not Your Opportunity

A New Business

It is seen quite often. Someone starts a new on-line business. They are enthusiastic. They are ready to go. Ready to rock. They place ads everywhere. They send e-mails to every list they can find. All of them tout this brand new thing-a-majig. All fail.

Why?

It is the classic misunderstanding of what kind of business they are in. They believe they are in an Internet business. They believe they are in a Marketing business. They believe they are in everything but what they are.

Imagine you have applied to manage a new restaurant opening down the street. It doesn’t mater what kind of restaurant it is. If it help you, suppose it is a McDonald’s. The owner asks you about your experience. They ask what you like about their company. They are quite impressed. They have one more question, “As the manager of this restaurant, what kind of business are you in?” You answer, “the restaurant business.” The owner looks sad. They sigh, shake your hand and thank you for your time.

You leave knowing you did not get the job. You cannot understand why.

Your Actual Business

It doesn’t matter if you are a manager of a restaurant or if you started the latest and smoking hot Internet business. All of these are in the same business.

“Wait!” you exclaim. “They sell food and I see widgets. They are not the same business.”

Yes they are. You are concentrating on the what and not the why. You are not looking at what the course business is. Why you are in business. Why you believe you will be successful. Why is the core, the heart, the very center of your business.

All of these business are in the People business. As a manager, you are mostly in the business of empowering and leading your workers. They in turn are your direct link to the customer. They are the face and the attitude of your business.

As an owner of an Internet business, you are all of those. You are the manager. You are the face. You are the heart. You are your brand. What you are selling is not your brand. What you are selling is not your business. You are your business. And you are in the People Business. Say hello.

Commentary

Getting With People, Living With People

Life

We go from day-to-day. We see people. We come and go. We arrive. We depart. We get up, eat, go about our business and sleep. Life is a movement. Life is dynamic. Life ebbs and flows. Life pushes forward, no matter what. Life creates. Life spreads. Life is.

Everyday, new life is started. Everyday, old life is over. Everyday a new beginning. Everyday a final end. Everyday.

People

People interact with one another. People buy. People sell. People talk, cry, love, hate, shout, play. People are people. People have feelings. People get depressed. People have joy. People get relaxed.

Business

Putting people and life together brings about change. It brings creativity. It brings destruction.

People and life together create the most wonderful of results. People and life built the great pyramids. People and life built Stonehenge. People and life built Notre Dame.

People and life together create philosophy. People and life together created the best experiment of personal Liberty the world has seen in America. People and life created love.

Life is a people business

Life is about coming along side another for a time, creating something greater than the parts and separating into different paths. Life is about helping people. Life is about knowing people.

Life is a people business.