Tag: Funnel builder

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Hit Pause, It’s Time to Reflect

It’s perfectly normal to experience times that you aren’t happy or satisfied with where your life is going, no matter how many goals you may have accomplished. The point of reflection is to ensure you are satisfied with the direction as you achieve each goal.

 

Without really trying things then you really never know what you might or might not like. It’s only natural to change course if you don’t. Evaluation and reflection also highlight areas you are likely doing wrong that are actually causing the process to fail.

 

Furthermore, self-reflection is an essential resource to your business because:

 

  • It builds confidence and self-efficacy.
  • It reduces stress and improves clarity.
  • It improves your goals and business processes.
  • It saves time and allows you to be more productive.

 

The following are a few ways to hit the pause button and reflect to better your business and yourself:

 

Ask Yourself Repeated Questions

Start the process by asking yourself open-ended questions. Meaning you can’t just answer yes or no. They need to inspire you to deep dive into your processes, goals, and aspirations to ensure you are on the right path for the success you want to achieve.

 

The following are a few ideas to get you started:

 

  • What’s working right now that I should continue?”
  • What didn’t work that I should change or adjust?”
  • What’s one new thing I have learned?”
  • What emotions did I experience, and how have they affected my work?”
  • What made me the proudest overall?”

 

Each of these questions is designed to analyze your actions and results and see how they compare to your ultimate goals and wants from life. For it to work, you can’t hold back and must commit to being honest. Accountability and ownership are two of the most important core values of productivity. As without them, you won’t take the right actions to get started or redesign your strategies.

 

Apply Solutions to Your Answers

After you answer each question, you need to take notice and action on whether you need to stick to your plan or change course. If you are experiencing more emotions than usual, for example, then it’s likely you need to add another routine or adjust a bad habit to make your day easier, less overwhelming, or bothersome.

 

Ignore Your Business for Once

One of the most important steps of self-evaluation is to forget about your business or job for once. While you may be passionate about your business, it’s not you or your life. It’s there to fuel the life you want. What do you and your body really need to achieve happiness, and why?

 

As you go through this process, it’s important to note that each time the experience will be, and should be, different to see results. Block time from your schedule and don’t utilize off-days. You need to set adequate time blocks and commit to the process to achieve ultimate happiness and success.

Are You Being Realistic About Your Goals?

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Don’t Let This Momentum Killer Destroy Your Success

Avoiding ownership and accountability impacts your life and business in many unhealthy ways. It is the momentum killer that ultimately eats away at your success, if there was any hope to start with, and certainly stalls any results for which you were hoping.

The price of Greatness

 

Waiting for others to do the work for you, blaming faults on everyone else, or finding excuse after excuse as to why bad things keep happening or why you keep delaying action will halt any success you hope to see in your life. Taking ownership and accountability is important:

 

  • For accelerated progress and business success.
  • For refining goals and responsibilities.
  • For improving your weaknesses and industry expertise.
  • To provide a sense of validation and control.
  • To keep you focused and engaged on what is most important.

 

Steps to improving your accountability and ownership for increased business success:

 

Step 1: Accept and Highlight the Truth

No one likes being wrong. It won’t feel the best at first, but there is a greater chance for peace with acceptance. Learn to highlight your weaknesses and problem areas so you can actively fight to do what’s right each step of the way. It’s not always as dramatic as it feels in the moment and most of the time, accepting it right away and verbally taking responsibility is all you need to get back on track and de-stress.

 

Step 2: Manage Your Expectations

Only rely on yourself and the actions you take to be successful. Don’t expect the world to give you everything on a silver platter. While success can and will happen to you, you must realize that it acts from you, and only you to get there. Please find what you need to do and make it happen. Don’t wait around for the world or others to make you happy.

 

Step 3: Find an Accountability Partner or Mentor

This is an excellent strategy if you have the extra funds or a friend and partner willing to help. When other people rely on you or expecting something from you, you are more willing and likely to do it. Not only that, but mentors can also provide knowledge, experiences, and perspectives that are far beyond your current reach to use and improve your ways.

 

Step 4: End the Excuses

Finally, the most important thing you must do is to stop excuses. Excuses only hold you back and prevent you from seeing the actual cause of your actions. It’s not the alarm clocks’ fault you didn’t show up on time again. It’s the lack of understanding why you keep hitting snooze and not putting in the effort to go after your goals.

Are You Being Realistic About Your Goals?

According to the dictionary, accountability is all about taking responsibility for your actions and inactions (as the case may be) and dealing with the consequences, good, bad, or indifferent, to do better in life and achieve your goals. With consistent effort and the commitment to be a better person, you are more likely to be successful.

 

 

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Five Tips for Better Task Prioritization

The secret to a successful to-do list or plan is understanding how to prioritize your goals and requirements for life and business. Prioritization orders tasks in the importance of urgency or in the most organized fashion to promote a consistent and smooth workflow. If you think planning is getting in your way of success, it’s likely your priorities that are in disorder.

 

Here are five tips and methods that allow you to prioritize more effectively to be sure you start each day more productively and better manage your time:

 

Consolidate and Analyze All Tasks First

Categorize and break it down into similar properties, deadlines, or time it takes to complete.

 

Keep in Mind All Requirements for Tasks

Consider the effort and the time it will take to accomplish each task as well. Who may you have to work with, or what environments may you need to change?

 

Remember the activities that you have a little resistance to or cause extra stress and anxiety. These tasks should likely be higher on your to-do list as they may take longer to accomplish.

 

Assign A Priority Number

Each day list your tasks in the order they should get done for optimal productivity. Keep in mind due dates or how urgent and vital it is to get done compared to the other tasks. If something is easy, it doesn’t always mean it is the best idea to get it done first when you know you have a deadline for a completely different project coming up tomorrow, for example.

 

Create A Priority Matrix

From the list you created earlier, take each of the tasks and organize it into two categories: important or unimportant. Then list whether the task is urgent, not urgent or if you should delegate and eliminate it instead—the following chart is an example of a priority matrix you can use to order your tasks better.

Chart

 

Use The “ABCDE” Method
Invented by Stephen Covey, the ABCDE method uses a grading system to apply a straightforward approach and visual representation to each task. Allowing you to quickly see what you should get done first without having to analyze too much.

Learn to Create Realistic Schedules

The rules to this method are as follows:

 

  • A – High priority tasks
  • B – Medium priority tasks
  • C – Low priority tasks
  • D – Delegate the tasks to others
  • E – Eliminate the tasks completely

 

This information will help you create your daily to-do lists or 90-day action plan to ensure you use your time efficiently. The last thing you want to do is have the right plan for success, just in the wrong order.

 

 

 

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Monetizing Your Email Messages

You have created an extraordinary and compelling lead magnet that is persuasive and solves one problem in a hurry for your ideal customer, depending on who you’re targeting in their buying journey, but just getting people on the list is not the end. You have to find ways to make money too. You only make money by making paid offers.

Lead Magnet Ideas You Can Use

  • Promote a Product You Use – If you’re part of your own audience, the products and services you use to solve those problems are of utmost interest to your audience. Tell them what you think about each resource you use and invite them to use it, too, with your affiliate link.

 

  • Promote Your Own Products and Services – Every three to four emails, send information about the products and services you have created for them. Anytime you bring up one of these problems, you can promote the solution.

 

  • Promote a Service You Love – Did you use a service you like recently that will be useful for your audience too? Let them know about it. Just like you’d tell your best friend about the yummy restaurant you went to last night, you should tell your audience about the services you get results from.

 

  • Tell Your Audience About a Product They Need – Even if you don’t use the products because you’re not part of your own audience, you should tell your audience about the products you need. Just like a doctor tells their patients what they need.

 

  • Create a New Product or Service – As you learn more about your customers, create products that fit into your niche that solve their problems.

 

  • Promote Memberships and Subscriptions – Continuity programs are awesome to promote whether you own them or not. Subscriptions and memberships usually require a monthly payment, which can really add up over time.

 

  • Sell Another Product on Your Download Pages – Anytime you create a thank you or download page, add the next product or service based on what they’re getting now, whether a freebie or not, as a suggestion.

 

  • Maximize Error Pages – Edit your error pages to take advantage of the space by recommending products, freebies, or whatever your current promotion is at the time.

 

  • Host Flash Sales – Keep your audience open and ready for more email messages by surprising them with list member-only sales periodically that thanks them for being VIPs.

 

  • Segment Your Audience Based on Their Behavior – Remember that you can keep segmenting your audience even after getting on your list by telling them about your newest offers, freebies, and so forth and using the automation inside the autoresponder to segment and tag them based on their actions.

 

  • Set Up Low-Cost Tripwires – A tripwire is a low-cost product that tests your audience’s interest. Usually, the cost is less than $27 dollars and is also a great way to build your list with your ideal audience.

Value Ladder

  • Up-Sell, Cross-Sell, and Down-Sell as Needed – Send the right offers to the right people. Based on their behavior, you may need to send information for up-sells, cross-sells, or even a down-sell if needed to keep their interest.

 

  • Remarket to Your List Members Via Paid Ads – One effective way to keep your list active is to use technology such as remarketing ads via social media. You simply upload your email list, and only those who are on that list will get your ads. You can use this to remind them to check their email.

 

  • Email Regarding Abandoned Carts – If you have a shopping cart, set up automation that automatically sends reminds to them if they abandon their shopping cart. You can do this via email, but you can also use remarketing ads to bring them back too.

 

  • Offer Coaching and Consulting Services – Personal one-on-one services and consulting is a very lucrative way to earn more money. Make these offers to those who have purchased most of your products and services.

 

The more ways you can offer opportunities for your audience to buy something you recommend, the more money you’re going to make. That’s just math. Make more offers, make more money.

 

 

 

 

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5 Ways Mentors Can Keep You on Track and Lead You to Success

Do you ever wish someone else could just tell you what to do, give you a little nudge when you feel demotivated, or tell you to knock off those bad habits before you get too far? Thankfully, you are not alone, and many people use these very questions as part of their mission statement. Mentors and coaches can provide exactly what you need to lead a more successful life.

 

The following are five ways mentors or business coaches can help you be more productive in life and business:

 

They Provide Knowledge from Hands-on Experience

Mentors can provide experiences, knowledge, and expertise from hands-on experiences. They can warn you or prevent you from making the same mistakes they did, providing you industry education and a way to save your time and frustration.

 

They Provide Networking

Mentors and coaches know a lot of people. They have to in order to be successful. If they don’t know anyone, who are they coaching? Mentors love to find others to share similar interests to discuss ideas or different concepts to grow their knowledge and gain different perspectives. Opening doors to people or opportunities you wouldn’t get to meet or have the chance to do in the first place.

 

They Build Up Your Resilience

They show you that even with failure or mistakes, success can happen without you going through the trouble yourself. If anything, they show you that your industry is a viable income source and can provide for you if you stay consistent and provide value somehow.

 

They Increase Your Self-Esteem and Courage

Mentors are great at providing motivation and inspiration to tackle your goals. Their job is to get your true goals out of yours and help you create an actionable plan to get there. They show you that just with a bit of push, you have exactly what it takes to continue as long as you keep taking action.

 

They Are Your Accountability Partner

Most importantly, mentors keep you accountable without really doing much work on their part. When you know you will have to go over your activities with someone else and not just yourself, you will want to do better. Impressing people and feelings of validation is normal to feel accepted and can motivate and inspire you to keep going.

 

If you keep struggling to get where you want in life, whether to achieve personal or business goals, give mentorship or a career coach a try. As you can see, they are a wealth of information, knowledge, and motivation. If anything, it’s another opportunity to continue your education and get to know yourself a little better. It’s easy to get productive when someone else besides you is counting on it.

Business Plan Resources You Can Use

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Eat the Frog! How That’s Actually Great for Business

No, don’t eat a real frog unless you like frogs’ feet. The point of this common phrase is to put a big emphasis on how much easier your day can be if you get the hard things out of your way first. In other words, if used correctly, this concept can increase your productivity to live a longer and more successful life.

 

Here’s how “eating the frog” leads to more success and higher productivity:

 

Get the Most Crucial Thing Done First

Whatever activities required to accomplish your ultimate goal are the things you should get done first. This concept works because you use your energy and most productive hours first. Allowing you to be more creative where it matters and get done faster.

 Productive or Just Busy?

Get the Stuff You Dread Out of the Way

When you dread something, you are likely to slow down and allow procrastination to take over and ruin your daily schedule and good habits. It stays on your mind no matter what you try to do next, keeping you distracted. Creating a spiraling effect of poor performance, mistakes, and ultimately affecting your mood. Instead, get dreaded tasks completed first and don’t permit yourself to do anything else. When you get a dreaded task done, you will feel relieved, and it will help you focus on the next task.

 

Go for The Most Exciting Thing

You don’t always have to go for the hardest, you can get the most exciting thing done first, too. This will probably benefit your day even more than the other way around. The energy produced by your excitement will trickle down throughout your day. Not only that, if you are ready for it to happen, you won’t be able to give anything else proper attention anyways.

 

Take Control and Achieve Your Goals

Most importantly eat the frog means taking control of your life or business and only do what is necessary to achieve your goals. Take control of what is required and get it done, even if it’s uncomfortable.

 

It means to take charge by fully understanding what it takes to accomplish your dream, designing actionable goals, and following good daily habits to achieve them. It takes the action, the right action. Without action, there is only failure.

 

It’s important to note that your frog will be different each day, and the same task you do one day as your frog won’t be the next. It really depends on your mood and overall objective for that day. Eat your frog first, and you can smoothly sail through the rest of your day.

 

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Be More Accountable and Consistent, Share Your Goals

If your goals are a secret, are you really making much of a commitment? Keeping your goals from others is a direct path to failure. You are essentially living a lie by not sharing.

This doesn’t mean it should be the only thing you talk about, but if you don’t share them, you likely are not doing the right actions to achieve them. You are allowing other people to get in your way of success. You need to share your goals so you can be more accountable, consistent, and successful.

 

The following are five ways that will help you be more accountable and how it leads to a more prosperous life:

 

Blog or Vlog About It

Share your goals or progress by developing and editing videos and posting them to YouTube or other social media platforms.

 

Tell Your Friends, Family, and Co-Workers

Pretty much let everyone know about your goals and aspirations. However, don’t let this be your only focus. Just let them know when the time is right so you can be sure to stay on track.

 

For example, don’t be afraid to let your co-workers know you started a new diet. Not only will they want to encourage you to do better, but they might also even join in. Making the process even easier for you. If you keep it to yourself, though, you could set yourself up to fail and join in on take-out during lunch.

 

Surround Yourself with Like-Minded People  

Not only is this a great way to keep you consistent and accountable, it can also be a great source of motivation to do and be better at sticking to your goals. Different people can also provide new information and perspectives that give you more knowledge to perform better or think more positively.

 

Find an Accountability Partner

If you don’t like the idea of telling everything, then an accountability partner is your next best option. Pick a person who is fully willing to say to you how it is – even if it hurts. Accountability partners only work if they want to help and don’t enable you instead.

 

Get A Coach or Mentor

A coach or mentor is like a glorified accountability partner. They are packed full of knowledge, education, and experiences to help you be a better person. They won’t be afraid to tell you how it takes to get where you want to be.

 Are You Being Realistic About Your Goals?

To live the life you desire, by becoming a goal crusher through productivity, you need to commit to it. Letting others know is the first step towards a successful commitment to achieve the life you want. Otherwise, you will only permit yourself to stay on the wrong path.

 

 

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5 Rituals to Boost Your Energy and Productivity

Wish you had more energy throughout your day to get each and everything on your to-do list done? You are not alone. Many people, tiny business owners, and entrepreneurs struggle to keep up.

 

Here are five rituals to add to your daily routine that will boost your energy to live each day more productively:

 

Sleep for 7 to 8 Hours Every Single Night

You can’t have good energy and be productive if you don’t get sleep. You may think you function great off 4 or 5 hours, but science doesn’t support this. You are more like a walking zombie. Even one to two hours less than a full night’s sleep of 8 hours can reduce your productivity by up to nineteen percent.

 

Getting a full night’s rest also affects your overall mood, health, and outlook. Your sleep pattern and routine are the first places to look when living a more productive life. Sleep and proper food equal optimal energy. Without both of those, you can’t expect to feel optimal.

 

De-Clutter Before You Get to Work

Nothing is better for freeing your mind than getting rid of clutter and ensuring your workspace is organized. When chaos is around, your brain will feel cluttered too. That will affect your work more than you may realize. Practice decluttering or quickly picking up everything before you get to work. It’ll be one less thing you will have to worry about later. Giving you clarity, focus, and peace to do your work right.

 

Meditate or Stretch with Sunlight

Your body requires vitamin D to feel optimal, and the best way to get that is through natural sunlight. Start each morning off with a short five-minute meditation routine or stretch outside or with your blinds open in the living room. As you clear your mind and de-stress, the sunlight will wake you up and energize you for the day.

 Avoid Burnout: How to Exercise and Sleep More

Wake Up Early and Get Moving

Science has shown that those who are early to bed and early to rise are healthier. They have smaller waist sizes and have longer life expectancy than those who refer to themselves as “night owls.”

 

Even if you feel like you may be a night owl, you can change your habits and morning routine to become one. Try going for a walk, light jog, or practice yoga to wake you up. The workout will provide you a boost of energy to help you work efficiently and allow you to get a full night’s rest once the day is over.

 

Never Skip Breakfast

Breakfast is when your body finally gets a moment to refuel after a long rest. It needs healthy fats, sugars, proteins, and other vital nutrients to be strong and alert. If you feel like you suffer from a lot of mental fog, especially in the mornings, your diet is probably to blame.

 

Watching motivational videos before you get to work or accomplish your goal, always taking a lunch break, or any repeatable task that benefits your life are good rituals to adopt if you want to be more productive. Remember, consistent, repeatable actions get you to the finish line.

 

 

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Top 7 Productivity Tools to Try

If you haven’t started automating some part of your business yet, then you are already behind. Tools and technology make business more accessible and ultimately increase your productivity so you can earn more money or crush more goals. Technology keeps you organized and consistent, allowing you to keep up with your competition.

 

Give these seven tools a try today to increase your business productivity:

 

#1:Trello

Trello is an online, cloud-based project management system that allows you to work anywhere with an internet connection. Create message boards, lists, cards and organize or delegate tasks to different team members.

 

#2:Dropbox

Cloud-based software that allows you to save and share files from any location. Dropbox is an excellent option for businesses that need to share, transfer, or save large files like video production.

 

#3:Zapier

Connect all your different applications to automate your workflow instantly. This application moves information from different social media platforms, email applications, and more. Choose your medium and trigger and watch Zapier do the work for you. For example, anytime someone signs up for your Facebook event, you can tell Zapier to send them a message automatically.

 

#4:Wave

Every business requires accounting, and that’s precisely what the Wave app makes a little bit easier. Create professional invoices, track your business expenses, incoming revenue, pay employees and instantly generate essential business reports.

 

#5:Evernote

Evernote is more than just a notepad. It saves your text, images, files, to-do lists, and more all in the same place to keep track of new business ideas or important events and information.

 

#6:Pushbullet

If you feel like you are juggling with too many devices, smartphone, tablet, desktop, and laptop, then Pushbullet is right for you. It connects all your devices making them easier to use and seem as though you only have one. Get notifications, check your emails, send links, text messages, or files, chat with friends, family, or co-workers all from one device.

 

#7:Todoist

Keep all your to-do lists, and never forget an appointment or important assignment again with Todoist. Todoist provides features that allow you to easily organize and prioritize your most important tasks, from creating the family budget or weekly grocery list to updating important business routines and strategies or instantly share your lists or delegate tasks to your team.

 Tools and Tips to Help You Automate Email Marketing

Don’t be behind anything longer. Find the right tools and technology for your business to be more productive. Start by adding just one of these productivity tools to your daily routine. Remember, technology will only go as far as you allow it. Learn how to use it right and give it time to see the rewards and benefits.

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How Sleep Impacts Your Productivity

American businesses lose an estimated $60 billion of revenue yearly simply due to poor sleep. A Baltimore sleep study in 2018 found that those who received less than a whole night’s rest of 7 to 8 hours of sleep regularly had significant productivity loss.

 

Anywhere from 19 percent less for those who got five hours of sleep and up to 39 percent for those who got even less sleep – showing just how important even one to two hours of sleep can make.

 

The numbers got worse if the employee experienced insomnia, snored, or have sleep apnea. Poor sleep and other factors contributing to your health affect every part of your body and your business. It compromises your memory, decision-making and problem-solving skills, mood, performance, bone, organ health, and more.

 

Proper sleep as well as adopting a good diet and exercise routine prevents:

 

  • Burnout – Sleep deprivation is the number one cause of burnout. You must rest to expect your body to work at its best.
  • Lowering Your Life Expectancy – Being sedentary, not getting enough or getting too much sleep, and getting the wrong foods can ultimately lower life expectancy. You can significantly increase your life expectancy by fueling your body appropriately, exercising at least thirty minutes a day, and getting eight hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.
  • Memory Loss – When you get the right amount of sleep, you can improve your ability to remember things and learn. Sleeping well gives you the mental clarity to make better decisions and perform at your best.
  • Mistakes or Injuries – Sleep deprivation leads to mental and physical impairments that can cause poor decision-making and accidents that create significant consequences like lost revenue or, worse, your life.

 

Three Tips to Help You Get More Sleep:

 

  1. Exercise and Diet – As annoying as it is, always to hear this, exercise and diet are the most important if you want to get a whole night’s rest or live a healthy life. Most problems stem from a poor diet and exercise routine.
  2. Avoid Stimulants – You may be drinking too many cups of coffee in your morning, which is easily crossing over into your sleep time. Start reducing your coffee intake; no more than 2 cups a day or less.
  3. Stay Consistent – Pick a nighttime routine and set a time and stick to it. Eventually, your body acclimates, and you’ll soon want to go to bed without you even trying.

The Areas of Life You Need to Design for Success

If you want to live your most productive life, feel better about yourself, your body, mental and physical well-being, you must sleep. Your business success and health depend on it.