Yanik Silver skydives from 28,500 feet, ATVs and scubas in Iceland, races dune buggies in Baja, and parties hard in Baltimore. He\u2019s having fun, big time. Profits from online sales of his marketing products have made his maverick lifestyle possible, and he\u2019s loving it.<\/p>\n
You may not long to go skydiving, but I\u2019m certain you have an ideal lifestyle in mind. Are you living it yet? Why not? Isn\u2019t that one of the main reasons you went into business in the first place?<\/p>\n
Every entrepreneur and small business owner I know talks about working less and making more money so they can do the things they\u2019d really love to do \u2014 travel, buy that sailboat, take the family to Timbuktu, live debt-free. But year after year, they\u2019re still working way too hard and not getting any closer to living their dreams.<\/p>\n
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Of course, there are potential obstacles\u2026. Don\u2019t let yourself <\/em>be one of them.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been there, working long days and seeing business grow steadily, but still not living the way I wanted to. One of the things I wanted to do was to spend more time on the ski slopes. I love to ski. Actually, I really <\/em>love to ski.<\/p>\n We bought a condo at a ski area in Vermont nine years ago, but I was only getting there a couple of weekends each winter. I couldn\u2019t get away to ski enough \u2013 I was working too hard!<\/p>\n I was very frustrated, and I knew if I waited too many years to live this particular dream, it\u2019d be too late.<\/p>\n The answer was simple. I added broadband access to our Vermont home so I could ski and work there in the winter. I\u2019ve been doing that for three seasons now and I\u2019ve finally found the lifestyle I\u2019ve been wanting for years. And my business is thriving too.<\/p>\n What was getting in my way?\u00a0 ME!<\/p>\n I had convinced myself that I needed to work from my Connecticut office to keep my business on track. Once I let go of that idea, I had to overcome my fear that if I spent more time skiing in the winter, my business would stop growing.<\/p>\n Actually, it grew faster than ever before \u2014 and yours can, too.<\/p>\n \n Unshackle your mind, and you\u2019ve taken a big step toward achieving business success and your ideal lifestyle. And who\u2019s in charge of your mind anyways? You are!<\/p>\n Almost every entrepreneur and business owner I know makes the same mistake: they focus on making money. They get obsessed with growing their business to bring in more revenue.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I did, and once you have that mindset, you\u2019re trapped by all the details of running your business. You spend every day putting out fires and looking at the bottom line.<\/p>\n How To Get Unstuck<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve coached and mentored hundreds of business owners over the last twenty years. Their problem has never been a lack of ideas. But I\u2019ve seen way too many clients hold themselves back by identifying all the rational, logical reasons they couldn\u2019t<\/em> live their dream. And they weren\u2019t hearing their intuition, which was telling them they could reinvent their lives \u2014 or their businesses \u2014 and make it to the top.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n \n Before I could achieve the lifestyle and the business success I wanted, I needed to relinquish a handful of ideas that were keeping me from just doing it. When I was able to let go of a handful of wrong headed notions, I was amazed at how simple it was to find the simple solutions the helped me live the way I wanted and continue to grow my business.<\/p>\n The biggest obstacle to creating the lifestyle you want is the banter in your head that keeps you from giving yourself the permission to do so. You know, the thoughts that keep telling you: \u201cIf I cut back on the number of hours I work, I\u2019ll make less.\u201d Not true. If you make better use of your time you could make twice as much in half the time.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve never done it before and don\u2019t know how.\u201d If I\u2019d told myself that before I sold a website for almost a million dollars ten years ago, I\u2019d still be struggling. <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Action A:<\/em><\/strong> 1. ______________________________________________ \n When Yanik initially told his friends he was thinking of writing a book on sales letters and selling it online, they laughed at him. They knew he had no experience in writing, publishing or selling online, no idea how to set up a website \u2014 and had only a few thousand dollars to launch this business.<\/p>\n Fortunately, Yanik ignored his friends. Four months later, he was making $9,000 a month from the $29 ebook he wrote and was selling online (with essentially no overhead). With the help of his wife but no other employees, Yanik has now sold over thirteen million dollars worth of his info-products <\/em>online.<\/p>\n Action B:<\/em><\/strong> 1. ______________________________________________ It\u2019s been said before, but I\u2019ll say it again; in order to reach your goals, you need to identify them, make them specific, and commit to them.<\/p>\n I have a friend who tells me over and over that he\u2019s overworked and\u00a0 needs a vacation. But he never sets aside the time or makes any travel plans, and something keeps coming up at work… and he keeps complaining about not getting a vacation.<\/p>\n The first step is to have a clear idea of what your ideal lifestyle would be. How and where do you see yourself working and playing? The more specific your description is, the easier it will be to create a plan to achieve your success.<\/p>\n For example, if you\u2019re a ski nut like I am, you\u2019ll want to figure out your schedule week by week, to guarantee that you have the time to spend on the slopes. In the winter, I schedule my client contact and calls in the afternoons so that my mornings are free for skiing and evenings for catching up with other tasks.<\/p>\n Describe your ideal life in a few sentences. What would a typical day, week or month look like? What would you be doing? We\u2019re not talking about a vacation here, but about what your integrated work\/play life would be. Create an image of how you will be spending your time:<\/p>\n ______________________________________________ <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Step 4 – Make Room<\/strong><\/p>\n Have you ever told yourself you\u2019re going to lose weight and then kept eating the same way you used to? The pounds didn\u2019t come off when you still had those donuts every morning, did they?<\/p>\n Have you ever tried to get your staff to take more responsibility for solving daily crises, but still stepped in when crunch time came? No wonder they can\u2019t solve problems without you.<\/p>\n Or made a new marketing plan without setting aside the time or resources to implement it?<\/p>\n None of these work. You can\u2019t do things the old way and the new way at the same time.<\/p>\n People make this mistake all the time. They hear about an idea that sounds great and they try adding it to an already full schedule. They tell themselves that if they just work harder, they\u2019ll get more done in a day. In fact, when you overburden an already full schedule, less and less gets done.<\/p>\n What\u2019s the solution? There are two simple steps to reaching your goals:<\/p>\n Every ambitious person who is serious about being successful is already busy. There\u2019s no lack of things to do, but are you doing the right things?<\/p>\n Action D <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Identify the tasks you need to stop doing. List 1 to 3 things you can delegate or eliminate in order to give yourself the time to focus on the strategic tasks you really want to do, and give yourself more time to enjoy life.<\/p>\n 1. ______________________________________________ <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n What About Creating Wealth?<\/strong><\/p>\n Why haven\u2019t I given you the blueprint to creating wealth yet?<\/p>\n Because the steps I\u2019ve outlined above are the biggest challenges entrepreneurs and small business owners face. Master the previous three steps and making enough money to live your dream will be possible. In fact, that may become the easiest part of the equation.<\/p>\n Still want a simple strategy to create wealth? \u2013 Here it is.<\/p>\n Solve A Problem<\/strong><\/p>\n Yanik Silver, this month\u2019s featured interviewee, started out as a salesperson in his father\u2019s medical supply company. He wanted to make more sales to impress his Dad. He also wanted to make his work easier, and he figured that if he struggled to write good sales letters, other salespeople were having the same problem.<\/p>\n That\u2019s how Yanik\u2019s first book, Instant Sales Letters,<\/em> was born. Others followed suit and he\u2019s now living what he likes to call an \u201cUltimate Lifestyle\u201d. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Action E<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Solve a problem. <\/strong>List 1 to 3 ideas for products or services that solve a problem. This may mean simply looking at your existing services from a new perspective, or coming up with related products or services. To develop ideas for new services or products, stick with the familiar, like Yanik did. <\/strong><\/p>\n While launching a new product may look like a great opportunity, you can also solve problems by providing your target market with increased selection, convenience and\/or service. This is what has made the online shoe store Zappos.com so successful, for example.<\/p>\n List 1 to 3 products or services and the problem they solve:<\/p>\n 1. ______________________________________________ Ready to live the ultimate lifestyle? The people who make it, who have the wealth to work and live the way they want aren\u2019t necessarily any smarter they you. And it\u2019s not that they just got lucky.<\/p>\n The difference is they made a commitment to make their dream a reality and then they took action. You can do it to, but don\u2019t put it off, get started today.<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n <\/strong><\/p>\n Additional Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 Yanik Silver\u2019s sites:Is It All In Your Head?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Step 1 – Identify Your Own Negative Thoughts<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\n\u201cMy wife\/ husband will kill me if I suggest\u2026.\u201d In my case she suggested the solution.<\/p>\n
\nList the 3 biggest concerns you have about changing the way you work and live, and giving yourself permission to seek the lifestyle you really want:<\/p>\n
\n2. ______________________________________________
\n3. ______________________________________________<\/p>\nStep 2 – Use Both Logic and Intuition<\/strong><\/h4>\n
\nTake each of the logical reasons you previously listed for why you can\u2019t achieve your dream lifestyle and explain why each is nonsense or is actually a great reason to make a change:<\/p>\n
\n2. ______________________________________________
\n3. ______________________________________________<\/p>\nStep 3- Paint a Picture of Your Destination<\/h4>\n
Action C:<\/em><\/h4>\n
\n______________________________________________
\n______________________________________________
\n______________________________________________<\/p>\n\n
\n2. ______________________________________________
\n3. ______________________________________________<\/p>\n
\n2. ______________________________________________
\n3. ______________________________________________<\/p>\n
\nwww.yaniksilver.com<\/a>
\nwww.instantsalesletters.com<\/a>
\nwww.surefiremarketing.com<\/a>
\nwww.internetlifestyle.com\/blog<\/a><\/p>\n