Marc's Blog

5 Blogging Tasks You Must Outsource Now

December 18, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

The biggest lesson I recently learned is that outsourcing most of your work is essential. The way people increase their productivity when they “hit a peak” is by outsourcing.

For a long time, I was a lone wolf. I managed to make it, but making it wasn’t good enough for me. I wanted to excel.

The way my workload and schedule were set up, I had no extra time to excel. At the time, it seemed like a legitimate excuse.

It’s funny how when we make excuses, the sound legitimate to us at the time. Outsourcing most of my workload eliminated that excuse.

Most of my social media activity is now outsourced. Outsourcing is the only reason I could focus more of my time towards Udemy and still write these blog posts.

It was scary to hand over some of my power to someone else, but it was worth it. You need a team of freelancers who can lighten your workload.

Now with social media outsourcing mastered, my eyes are now set to outsourcing many of the activities that happen on this blog. The end goal is that I only do two things with this blog:

Write content
Engage with readers like you in the comments section
Promote my content (and most of that is outsourced)

Everything else I do with this blog stands in my way. That’s how I choose to see it. I have outsourced many activities that once stood in my way. The result: more time for myself and my business.

So what should every blogger outsource right now? Here are the big five:

#1: Editor

No matter how great you are at writing content, you are bound to make some mistakes. You wouldn’t want a typo ruining the way people perceive your blog—and even worse—how they perceive you.

With so many blogs on the web, we expect a great experience. Any flaw has the potential to depreciate the experience.

Depending on how many blog posts you write, proofreading your blog posts may take up hours of your time every week. The worst part is that you may skip over the mistakes as you rush to read your blog posts.

If you proofread your blog posts too early, you may not even notice the mistakes. Here’s where a proofreader comes in.

Right when you finish writing a blog post, you can submit that blog post to the proofreader. Then, have that proofreader double-check your blog post for any errors. You can even ask this proofreader to add additional value to your content or reword certain paragraphs.

When I proofread my blog posts, I rely on spell check. Sometimes I will proofread my blog posts from start to finish, but that takes too much time.

If you find yourself proofreading your blog posts too much (or typos find their way on your blog), you should hire an editor to make sure your content is sharp.

#2: Picture Creation

For the most part, this blog has had a fair amount of eye-popping pictures but also a fair amount of decent pictures. Just like any blogger, I want more eye-popping pictures in my blog posts.

I heard about a free tool called Canva. It is an AMAZING tool for creating free pictures. However, I didn’t have enough time to create awesome pictures with Canva. Some of the pictures I created for my blog posts were nice. Other pictures were decent.

So I decided to outsource that part of my blog.

I no longer create the pictures you see on the top of my blog posts. I hire a freelancer who knows far more than I do about creating eye-popping pictures.

It would take me 10 minutes just to create a picture and insert it into the blog post. The same process now takes me less than 15 seconds (I just get the provided picture and insert it into the blog post).

In other words, I shaved off 9 minutes and 45 seconds from the blog scheduling process—for each blog post I schedule.

All of that extra time adds up.

#3: Content Research

Providing data to support your content will give you more authority in your niche. There is a difference between saying, “Twitter is great for business” and providing credible statistics and facts that explain why Twitter is great for business.

That data comes from content research. It is simply the process of using Google or Bing to find articles and information that would strengthen your content.

Some blogs rely more heavily on content research than others. If you find yourself Googling and Binging too often for the sake of your content, a content researcher is the next person you should hire.

Even if you know how to find the right information to strengthen your content, outsource the work.

Successful entrepreneurs don’t exclusively outsource that tasks they don’t know how to do. They also outsource the time consuming tasks, even if the task is relatively simple. Time is money, and entrepreneurs always need more time.

#4: SEO

Let’s be honest. SEO is a bear. Technically, it’s a panda or penguin depending on what Google chooses to call it. Of course, the updates are named after the innocent animals that we aren’t scared of.

But for many people, SEO is this giant maze that seems to double in size when you think the finish line is near.

And if you are one of the people who knows a lot about keyword research and SEO, then you know it takes a large amount of time.

Which keywords to choose? What description would work the best? So many questions and so much work once you know the answers.

Outsourcing your blog’s SEO solves that problem.

However, you want to be very careful when you outsource your blog’s SEO. There is a lot of contradictory advice and not all SEO experts are actually experts.

If you choose to hire a freelancer, ask that freelancer who he/she has already worked for and how much the freelancer knows. If you know a lot about SEO, simply tell the freelancer what you would do and then have the freelancer do it.

#5: Someone To Add The Finishing Touches

Consistent bloggers almost never hit the “Publish” button. We click the “Schedule” button. We must designate the time and date in which all of our blog posts must be published.

Then we add categories and tags to our blog posts to make it easier for readers to navigate through our blogs.

Depending on your blog, you may have numerous finishing touches to make once you write the content and have all of the picture ready.

I have to play around with the HTML to make the big text a specific size. Here is the HTML I manually type in to make the big text the way it is:

<span style=“font-size: x-large;”>#5 Someone To Add The Finishing Touches</span>

Manually making that change takes up time too, and I am sure you have to make similar finishing touches.

Imagine if those finishing touches were all done for you. Outsourcing those finishing touches to other freelancers makes that possible.

In Conclusion

As first glance, outsourcing is scary. Outsourcing requires trust and a willingness to hand over some of your workload to someone else.

Once you become comfortable with outsourcing, you will quickly find extra time in your day. Imagine half of your workload suddenly getting taken off of your shoulders.

The amount of time you would save. The goals you would accomplish. Just imagine it.

Outsourcing makes it possible. Out of all of the tasks associated with a successful blog, those five tasks are the ones you need to look into outsourcing now.

Even if you can’t outsource all five of those tasks now, outsource at least one of those tasks.

Which of these tasks do you think is the most important to outsource? Do you know any other tasks in the blogging process that you believe should be outsourced? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Secret Sauce To Getting More Done

December 16, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

If you do something every day for about 66 days, it becomes a habit. Something that you couldn’t imagine doing at all suddenly becomes common in your life a little over two months later. When 2015 began, one of my family’s goals for the year was to sell the piano in our garage.

In mid-August we made a sale, but by a stroke of luck, it was that moment when I wanted to play the piano every day. I hadn’t even touched it for a few years. Now I wanted to play it every day. Sale canceled.

My decision shocked us all. I knew at that point I was automatically committed to playing the piano every day. However, I had to build the commitment. A few months later and now I’m playing the piano every day.

On some days, I am playing the piano for more time than I spend on my business. How did that happen? The first reason is because I quickly fell in love with it. The second reason is that I set forth a plan to get me from Day 0 to Day 66. I knew that once I was playing the piano on the 66th day, it would be effortless for me to play the piano every day.

As a productivity expert, I knew many tricks of the trade. The best way to perform a task every day is to give yourself a productivity spreadsheet. For the piano, I would identify what songs I had to play and what exercises I had to perform to allow my fingers to cover a greater range of the keyboard.

Before I turn this blog into a musical blog, I’ll shift back to business. You don’t have to play the piano to utilize this method. In fact, I use productivity spreadsheets do create videos for my training courses every day. Productivity spreadsheets are the main reason why I can create numerous videos every day but still have time for the piano.

Productivity spreadsheets work like this:

#1: Have A Physical Calendar

Yes, a physical one. I am what some people would call a digital native. Just as people describe this current generation as Generation Z, many people refer to the people in this generation as the digital natives.

However, this is something that you can’t do on a device. There is something about writing down your dreams and goals on a piece of paper that you don’t get by typing them on the screen.

I tend to take a piece of paper and fill in the boxes and form my calendar. All of the boxes and numbers are drawn on the paper with a marker. That’s how seriously I take the idea of having a physical, non-digital calendar. And I’m a digital native. Let that sink in.

#2: Apply The Seinfeld Method

The Seinfeld Method is one of the best ways known to mankind to stay accountable. You simply put an “X” on all of the days that you complete the task. Then, keep the streak of “X’s” going. I used to have a calendar of “X’s” for playing the piano every day. Each time I could write another “X” on the calendar, I felt more accomplished.

I no longer have a calendar for “X’s” for playing the piano because it’s habitual. I don’t even think about it. I just do it.

That’s all a productivity spreadsheet is (fine, you can call them calendars but I personally think spreadsheet sounds cooler). However, how do we fully utilize those productivity spreadsheets so they allow us to be more productive? These are two power tips:

#1: Identify What You Will Do The Night Before

The best time to plan your day is the night before. At nighttime, we aren’t in the rigorous workflow state of the mind. At night, we tend to be more creative since there are fewer boundaries. Think about what your schedule looks like at 1 pm. You could be doing so many different things at 1 pm.

So, as an extreme example, what are you doing at 1 am. Chances are you aren’t working. You are either sleeping or are absolutely fried.

The longer we stay up, the less productive we become. It is at this time, just before going to bed, when we need to identify what we will do on the following day. That way, we can wake up knowing what we must accomplish.

You don’t want to think about what your day will comprise of in the morning because at that point, you are losing too much valuable time. Your first hour dictates how the rest of your day goes. Have a productive first hour, and you will probably have a more productive day.

#2: Take The Path Of Least Resistance

Let’s say you want to create video every day and turn that into a habit. You have done some videos here and there but are still not super comfortable with the whole process. I give you two options:

You must complete at least one five-minute video per day
You must complete at least 10 five-minute videos per day

It would be more incredible to do the 10 videos. However, that’s not how we become productive. We are creatures of habit who hate dramatic changes. We can achieve dramatic changes by taking one step at a time.

Most people like to view dramatic change as a colossal leap. That colossal leap is simply the combined total of a series of smaller leaps taken in advance.

To turn a task into a habit, you must perform that task every day for 66 days. It is easier in the beginning to turn one video per day into a habit than it is to turn 10 videos per day into a habit. Focusing on completing a minimum of one video per day allows you to build a strong foundation. That strong foundation results in habit formation.

Finally, once you have the strong foundation, and you choose to strengthen it, you can eventually get to the point of completing at least 10 five-minute videos per day.

In the beginning, you aren’t going for workload. You are going for consecutive days of completion. Only pay attention to the workload after the 66th day.

In Conclusion

If you want to turn your newest tasks into effortless habits, then you need to create productivity spreadsheets for those tasks. The key to becoming productive is to do a little bit each day. Once you have a solid foundation, you can begin to expand upon that foundation.

What are your thoughts about the productivity spreadsheet method? Which of these methods did you like the most? What are your tips for boosting productivity? Sound off in the comments section below.

4 Characteristics Of Thriving Social Media Users

December 14, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

How do they do it? I’m talking about the social media users who have large audiences. The social media users that went from zero to hundreds of thousands of followers. It was a question I often asked myself. I wondered if there was some type of secret formula they used.

Yes, there are some saucy methods involved. However, going from not knowing anything about social media to growing a massive audience is epic. A close look at the surface of these individuals quickly reveals how they became successful on social media.

People like to think there’s some secret sauce involved, but these basic characteristics that they share. It turns out we know most of these characteristics already, but they are the key to success on social media. In addition, knowing and doing are two different things.

#1: They Use It The Right Way Every Day

Most of us are good at using social media every day. Successful social media users use it more productively than the common social media user. They look for targeted audiences, engage with those targeted audiences, and provide them with awesome content.

The intent of a successful social media user is to humor the audience or to empower the audience with knowledge. Successful social media users think, “How can I create a better experience?” before they think, “How can I get more followers?”

Use social media in a powerful way, and you are bound to see powerful results.

#2: They Are Patient

You’ve heard this tip for just about everything in your life. Be patient if you want to run faster times. Be patient if you want to be a singer. Be patient, be patient, be patient (I think we all get the point).

But sure enough, patience plays a role yet again. Successful social media users eventually shift to the question “How can I reach out to more people?” Recognize they aren’t asking themselves how to make the “follower” number bigger. They want to reach and empower as many people as possible using social media.

When you first commit to growing a large social media audience, it takes time. Part of the reason is that when you first start, you won’t know everything. Successful social media users now gain hundreds of followers every day. But there was a time when these same social media users struggled to gain five followers in a given day.

Patience got these users from gaining five followers per day to gaining hundreds of followers per day.

#3: They Are Always Hungry For Knowledge

When a new social network is launched, there are two types of pioneers who grow large audiences on the new social network: The Rare Pioneer and the Expected Pioneer. The Rare Pioneer is someone who isn’t successful on any other social network. However, this Rare Pioneer loves the new social network and quickly masters it. Then, people start following this Rare Pioneer on all of the other social networks.

The Expected Pioneer is the successful social media user expanding his/her platform. The Expected Pioneer gets into the action as soon as possible. Since a new social network is getting a lot of sign-ups, it is normal to get a lot of followers just by posting something.

I did two Periscope broadcasts on the day Periscope came out. I assure you that both of them were subpar at best. For one of them, I didn’t even know I was recording a live broadcast. In the first three days after Periscope was launched, I had over 2,000 followers.

Successful social media users often acquire more knowledge by extending themselves onto other social networks. While they wait for a new social network to come out, they are reading blog posts, reading books, and watching videos about social media. They want to be connected with other successful social media users so they can learn more about the platform and build relationships.

Since you are at this point of the blog post, then you hunger for knowledge too. However, you must always hunger for knowledge and want as much of it as possible—even when you too are a successful social media user.

#4: At One Point, They Focused On One Social Network

The social media world is as easy or as complicated as you make of it. Unfortunately, most of us want to make the social media world as complicated for ourselves as possible. We’re tweeting on Twitter, pinning on Pinterest, posting on Facebook, uploading videos to YouTube, and sharing our pictures on Instagram. We’re catching up with the news about Periscope and Blab and still trying to find some time to get the Vine in.

Successful social media users utilize an arsenal of social networks. However, in the beginning of their journeys, the eventual successful social media users would stick with one social network. They tend to master one social network from the inside-out before they try to master another social network.

I view social media mastery in the same way a linguist would view mastering the romance languages. There are two approaches to mastering a series of languages:

Approach #1: I give you flash cards, proper phrases, and Rosetta Stone for French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, and Italian. You have to master all of these languages at the same time.

Approach #2: I give you everything I gave you in the first approach. However, you choose one language and commit yourself to mastering that one language. You only start learning another language once you have mastered the first language you are trying to master.

Give me Approach #2 any day of the week. This is the same way in which we must view social media.

Do all social media users go with the second approach? I would say about 99% of them do, and you can tell. One way you can tell is by the content they write on their blogs. If you go through this blog, you’ll discover that the first social network I discussed in great detail was Twitter. That’s because Twitter was the first social network that I strived to master.

You can also figure out the first social network a successful social media user mastered by looking at the audience sizes of their social networks. Most of the successful social media users will have large audiences elsewhere, but the social network they started on will almost always have the largest audience.

Out of all of my social media accounts, my Twitter account by far has the largest audience. That could change in the future depending on how much I invest into Facebook likes, but right now, Twitter by far has the largest percentage of my social media audience.

If you find me on social media, chances are you’ll find me on Twitter first before you find me on any of my other social networks.

In Conclusion

In our search for the secret sauce, we ignore the recipe on the kitchen door. All successful social media users achieved their success in large part because of these four characteristics. These four characteristics were the foundation that led to the acquisition of other skills.

Those skills combined with these characteristics allow social media users to become successful. These characteristics give you the GPS needed to achieve social media success. You can’t see how many miles you are away from your destination, but you’ll know that the path you are heading on is the right path for you.

Which of these characteristics do you think is the most important? Do you think there are any other defining characteristics of successful social media users? Sound off in the comments section below.

4 Secret Methods To Get More Landing Page Traffic

December 11, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

If you were a Jedi Knight, your landing page would be your lightsaber. It is the life-line of your blog.

The landing page allows you to grow your email list by offering a free eBook, report, or video. The free prize encourages people to enter their email addresses into the form. Here’s my most popular landing page:

Landing Page

Since the landing page is like my lightsaber, I want to direct as much traffic to it as possible. I promote it like it’s my gem.

To be a successful blogger with a big email list, you must promote your landing page like it’s the gem of your blog.

I ran through some of the more common methods of promotion in a previous blog post.

This blog post is going to discuss the less traditional methods. These secret methods don’t get as much attention, but they are critical nevertheless.

These are the four secret methods to get more landing page traffic.

#1: Link To It In Your Social Media Bios

Many people believe that they should have a link to their website in their bio. That’s only half true.

Yes, you want a link to your website. However, you have full control over which page on your website you link to.

On my social media accounts, I link to my landing page. Take a look at my Twitter bio. The link isn’t “marcguberti.com.” The link is to my landing page.

Twitter Bio

It’s the simplest change you can make to get more traffic to your landing page.

#2: Link To It In Guest Posts

All guest blogs allow you to write a bio for yourself. If you give them content, and you aren’t a ghostwriter, they will feature you as the author.

Most guest blogs provide you with the opportunity to talk about yourself in a few sentences. Within that small blurb, you need to create a call-to-action.

After people read your guest post, you want people to get led away from that guest post and to your landing page.

But how?

The easiest way is to tell people about your landing page in your bio:

Business2Community Bio

The blurb at the bottom of the guest post matters the most. On Business2Community, my bio could be several paragraphs long.

However, the small blurb only contains a few lines of my long bio. I put the landing page at the beginning of the bio so it makes it into the blurb.

After reading the guest post, people will then click the link and go to my landing page.

Some guest bloggers will let you link to various posts on your blog throughout the guest post. One of those links should be to your landing page.

Capitalize on any opportunity you get to promote your landing page in your guest post. Of course, if you link to your landing page 10 times in the same guest post, people will get annoyed. The person who owns the guest blog probably won’t want you back.

But don’t be afraid of promoting the landing page in your guest posts. It’s the gem of your blog. It’s your lightsaber.

#3: Share The Landing Pages On All Of Your Social Networks More Often

On the surface, this method doesn’t seem like a secret. If anything, it seems like the most common method out there. Promote on social media and that’s where the magic happens.

But within that surface lies some secrets.

It’s not good enough to promote a landing page once in a while. It’s not even good enough to promote the same landing page several times per day.

I tweet about my landing page every other hour. That’s the amount of effort it takes to maximize the landing page traffic you get from Twitter. On Facebook, I am posting a link to one of my landing pages every day.

I share my landing pages as much as possible without annoying my audience. That’s how you get traffic to a landing page from social media without paying a penny.

You can use social media advertising to speed up the process, but I recommend avoiding social media ads until you feel more comfortable with social media.

#4: Have Your Own Affiliate Network

I was recently involved in an affiliate opportunity where I promoted a high-priced training course. I received over $100 in commissions for every sale I made.

I saw other affiliate marketers take part in the promotion of other people’s training courses. I knew that it was lucrative.

What I didn’t know is that affiliate marketing done right can help you dramatically grow your email list.

Part of the affiliate promotion was to promote the landing page with the preset autoresponder. In other words, part of the affiliate promotion was me and every other affiliate helping one person grow his email list.

We made money too, but we also helped to grow an email list.

There was a competition in place where the Top 5 people received some awesome prizes (Apple products or a TV depending on placement. People who didn’t want the prize could just get additional cash instead).

I finished in 17th place. It was very fitting since I was 17 years old at the time of the affiliate promotion. I brought in 139 opt-ins.

I was by no means the biggest player in the affiliate promotion. The numbers of everyone else didn’t get published, but since 16 people were ahead of me, here’s what I do know:

The 17 of us put together brought in at least 2,400 subscribers. I wouldn’t be shocked if in less than a month, all of us put together brought in 5,000-10,000 new opt-ins.
My username was a41 so my guess is that I was the 41st affiliate. Chances are over 100 people promoted the training course and landing page.

Creating your own affiliate network is where the magic happens. It’s how a lot of marketers make their money nowadays. If you have the right affiliate network in place, that can also mean thousands of new subscribers for you in just a few days.

Imagine the most influential people in your niche promoting your landing page to their audiences. That’s what can happen with an affiliate promotion in place.

I’ll just let that sink in as I move on to the conclusion.

In Conclusion

There are many ways to promote a landing page. Some of those methods will lead to some traffic while other methods can completely transform your business.

The only way to know which methods will yield the best results is to give them a try. Then you will know for certain which methods work the best.

Which of these methods was your favorite? Do you know any other methods for getting more landing page traffic? Sound off in the comments section below.

How To Find Your Voice On The Web

December 9, 2015 by Marc Guberti 6 Comments

What do you stand for? What makes you who you are? How can you use that to build an authority and find your on the web?

These three questions are commonly discussed. We want to chase our passions and make money by doing what we love to do.

We spend about 33% of our lives working. That’s a lot of time to either be happy or sad. Finding your voice on the web allows you to gradually build an authority.

Before you can build an authority, you need to find your voice. Here’s how:

Ask Yourself This Question

What is your purpose?

This question will allow you to learn a lot about yourself. If you ask yourself this question every day, you will eventually discover what your purpose is.

Your purpose is the reason you are here. You build your voice around your purpose so you enjoy what you do.

If you are having difficulty finding your purpose, just ask yourself what you like doing. If you don’t like to do something, then it isn’t for you.

In other words, your purpose won’t be to do something that you hate. That’s not living life to its fullest potential.

Your purpose is to do more than to survive. Your purpose is to thrive in a certain area. Where you are to thrive will open itself up if you search for it.

Find Role Models Who Are Fulfilling Your Purpose

Chances are some people already live the way you want to. Their fulfilled purposes parallel with your purpose that you want to fulfill.

There are two ways to look at people who are already where you want to be. Each viewpoint also presents its different consequences:

#1: Envy. You will wish you were in that person’s position and hope to see that person falls. If you can’t have it, neither can the other person. Envy guarantees failure.

#2: Admiration. You recognize that the same people fulfilling the purpose you wish to fulfill started out where you are now. These people then become your role models and help you achieve success. Admire others and soon enough others will admire you.

I have many role models, and I admire them all. This admiration allowed me to become a better individual. Instead of wishing I was them, I use them as motivation.

That’s how we should view all of our role models.

Put In The Work

Identifying your purpose lets you know what you have to do. Finding role models lets you see who is living out your purpose the right way, and who you should use for inspiration.

Once you have these first two steps done, the next step is to simply put in the work.

No matter what blog post you read about becoming successful or doing something incredible, putting in the work will show up in one way or the other.

You don’t become an athlete without putting in the work. You don’t become a bestselling author without putting in the work.

And you definitely don’t become a successful entrepreneur without putting in the work.

Identify the type of work you must put in, and then simply put in the work every day. Regardless of how much work you put in every day, it is critical to put in the work daily.

Putting in the work every day will eventually turn that work into a habit. Eventually, you won’t even think about it as work.

It is better to do the work for 15 minutes every day than it is to only do three hours over the weekend but do nothing during the weekdays.

Mathematically, that doesn’t make much sense. 15 minutes per day does not add up to three hours (it only adds up to 1 hour and 45 minutes).

The importance is that 15 minutes per day turns the work into a habit. Once you turn the work into a habit, it becomes effortless.

If you have time in your schedule, it won’t take long before you can comfortably perform the same work for 30 minutes each day.

It becomes more fun. You get more productive. You feel comfortable doing what you do.

It is better to be consistent than it is to get all of the work done in one day.

Reflect And See If This Is Right For You

After you put in the work, you now have the opportunity to reflect. Is this really something that you want to do for the rest of your life?

Some people will say yes while others will say no.

All that matters is what you say.

If you believe you are on the right track, then stay on that track. If you don’t believe your current path is for you, then get on another path.

The moment you lose belief in yourself is when everything gradually falls apart (unless you change).

I like to reflect by writing in a journal every night. Before I go to bed, I write about the dreams I am chasing after. Writing in my journal every night reinforces the idea that my dreams are worth it and that I must get them.

Everything I am feeling in my mind lands on the journal. The cool part is that many months later, I will look back at those entries and see what I was thinking at the time.

A journal doesn’t cost much. The experiences it provides you with as you chase your dreams may become unforgettable.

In Conclusion

Finding your voice lets you know what you must be. The work that helps you amplify your voice and live life the way you want to matters more than any of your other workload.

Put in the work to achieve your dreams, and with patience, your dreams will be achieved. Patience is the most important part of the process. Few people have it which is why compared to the world population, few people are successful.

Which part of this process do you think is the most important? Do you have any other tips for us to find our voices and build authorities around them? Sound off in the comments section below.

What To Do When You Get Discouraged

December 7, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Is it worth it?

When I started out, I found myself asking myself this question too often. My confidence wasn’t what it is now.

Was it worth it to start a blog and put in that much effort? Is all of the time I am spending on Twitter amounting to anything? Does my age put me at a disadvantage?

The transition from hobby to business was stressful in the short-term. In the long-term, it was a great decision.

Regardless of what I got discouraged about, I knew it was essential to shake off the discouragement as quickly as possible.

It’s easier said than done. But the doing part isn’t as hard as most people think. It usually takes me 5-10 minutes to shake off any discouragement.

I’m not a superhuman. I just know my ideal response to discouragement. Creating responses to challenges makes it easier for you to conquer those challenges.

Once I shake off the discouragement, I go back to my work feeling more reinvigorated than ever.

The way I respond to any type of discouragement can be replicated by any individual. Here’s my three step process:

#1: Listen To Motivational Songs

Music plays a big role in our culture. It’s also played a big role in cultures that existed thousands of years before our current culture.

One truth about music is that some of the songs we listen to impact the way we feel. Some songs automatically make us feel happy while other songs automatically make us feel sad.

Listen to the songs that make you feel motivated. Put an entire playlist together if you have to. The right songs can give you enough motivation for you to shake off the discouragement.

Certain songs are guaranteed to motivate you based on the way you interpret them. These are the songs you need to listen to the most.

There is one song that I always listen to when I feel discouraged. The song I choose to listen to doesn’t matter for the purposes of this blog post (but I promise it’s clean).

The way I interpret the song may be different from how you would interpret the song, so you may not get as motivated by it.

Anyway, there is a song you’ve heard for years that holds a deep meaning in your heart. That’s the song you need to listen to…not the song that I listen to.

#2: Take Some Type Of Action

Every type of motivation you receive is just temporary motivation. It eventually fades away and must then be replaced with another form of motivation.

Idle around after listening to the song, and then that song loses its effectiveness.

Listening to the song is meant to provide you with motivation to take action. Regardless of how significant or minuscule your action looks, take action.

If you are in the middle of writing a book, and you take a break to listen to your favorite song, make it a point to write more content for your book.

Regardless of whether the song motivates you to write an extra 500 words or an extra 5,000 words, you need to take some form of action.

Taking a small action will make you feel better about the task ahead of you. Back when I would get discouraged from doing videos, I would listen to a motivational song.

Then I would go back to creating videos. Each time I listened to the motivational song, I made more progress.

#3: Plan For Next Time

You’ll have to write more words for that book the following day. You will have to put in the work tomorrow just as you did today.

At this stage of the three step process, your motivation is at a high point. When your motivation is at a high point, you do everything you can while your motivation is at its high point.

After I take some type of action, I plan out how I will take my next action. The night before, I will always identify what I must do the following day.

That way, I’m not thinking about what I must do. I already know what I must do.

The more prepared you are for what lay ahead, the more motivated you will feel to tackle the big challenges. Then, discouragement gets washed away.

Continue To Believe

This three step process helps you shake off discouragement. We get discouraged during challenging situations. This discouragement happens to be a part of the hero’s cycle.

It’s natural to feel discouraged in the middle of a challenge. The people we admire felt discouraged at some point in their lives.

They wondered if what they were doing was worth it. They wondered if they could fulfill their dreams. They wondered if they could.

It turns out they could. And we can. The amount of belief you have for yourself determines how far you go in life.

We are all like Ferraris. We have potential to do great things in our lives. Not believing in yourself is like hoping the Ferrari with an empty tank will provide an epic driving experience.

The Ferrari can provide an epic driving experience. Without any gas, it’s no better than a used car from the 1990s.

Choose to believe in yourself throughout your journey. You’ll be glad you did.

In Conclusion

Discouragement hinders our progress. It makes us doubt and wonder if what we are doing is worth the effort.

The way to beat discouragement is with overwhelming motivation. Motivation isn’t challenging to acquire. Listening to the right songs is a quick way to get an instant boost in motivation.

With that instant boost in motivation, you can then take more action and plan out how you will take even more action in the future.

Motivation will take you far, but motivation isn’t permanent. We must motivate ourselves throughout the day (and often in the simplest ways imaginable) to be our best.

What are your thoughts about this three step process? Do you have any other tips to beat discouragement? Sound off in the comments section below.