Online Marketing Tips Podcast: Doing What It Takes

Doing What It Takes for Online Entrepreneurs

This most recent podcast is a discussion of doing what it takes to be successful in business and in life. This conversation comes from my upcoming book, entitled Doing What It Takes. Here are some of the points I explain in great detail:

• Take full responsibility for everything that happens in your life. This was a big one for me, as I was coming from the “victim” mentality for so many years. To finally embrace the belief that I had been and continue to be responsible for everything in my life rattled my core values and beliefs in a life altering way.
• Feel the fear and do it anyway. Now this is the title of an excellent book first published in 1987 by Susan Jeffers, and the concept would be expanded upon by Shad Helmstetter, in his book What To Say When You Talk To Yourself a few years later. For years I believed that if you were honestly afraid of something you had two choices. One was to get as far away from it as possible and the other was to grit your teeth, squint your eyes, and try to get it over with as quickly as possible. Now I choose to face the fear, verbalize what I am feeling internally, move towards and through the experience, and observe the shift that occurs as I get closer to it becoming part of who I am.
• Be willing to die for the truth. This comes from an inspirational talk by actor and producer Will Smith where he discusses how no one could ever surpass him in a treadmill competition because he would be willing to drop dead of a heart attack rather than to jump off while the other person is still on the machine. Now this may sound very dramatic, but the point is a valid one.
• Get ready to do the work and make things happen. When the film The Secret was released in 2006 I was at the very beginning of my journey as an online entrepreneur. I absolutely adored the idea of being able to think about what I wanted in my life and to know it was on its way to my doorstep. Then the reality set in that I had to actually take massive action and I loved that concept even more. Why? Because I knew that few people would be willing to do the work it would take for them to achieve even the smallest of their goals. Do the work, stay focused and productive, and you will be far ahead of almost everyone else.
• Abandon the notion of needing to know all of the steps and pieces up front before you can surge forward. You only need to know the relevant and tangible pieces of any project at the very beginning. This applies to most things in life.
• Know that the resistance is coming. Accept and embrace this as a part of the process of changing your life and becoming a successful entrepreneur. This feeling is more than likely going to be a physical one, so you’ll have to experience the discomfort a few times before recognizing it for what it is. For me, it’s a feeling deep in the pit of my stomach. In the beginning I thought I was either hungry or had a stomach ache. Once I identified it as resistance to change or action related to my business I simply acknowledged it and moved on.
• “Not feeling like it” will never be a reason not to accomplish even the smallest task or goal. When I first heard others saying they did not do what they had intended to do or what was expected of them because they just didn’t feel like doing it I was dumbstruck. If you find yourself feeling this way, simply give it a moment and do it anyway. When I need to write a new sales letter for a product or training course or live event I usually don’t feel like doing it, but that has never stopped me from completing the task at hand and getting on with it.
• There probably isn’t a blueprint for exactly what you wish to achieve as an entrepreneur. Accept and embrace this as a challenge to develop your own blueprint over time as you