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Get Guaranteed Speaking Gigs With Scott Reib — Ep 15

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Scott Reib is known as America’s Legal Coach. He’s the official Zig Ziglar Small Business Lawyer, a Ziglar Legacy Certified Trainer, and he has over 20 years of experience as an attorney. For the last two decades, Scott has been helping business owners, entrepreneurs, coaches, and service providers to “shatterproof” their businesses and succeed in the professional world.

 

What You’ll Learn: 

  • Marketing yourself as a speaker
  • How to make a profit when paying to get on someone’s stage
  • Using speaking reel and other videos to get on more stages
  • The best way to get on more stages (guaranteed to work)
  • Closing the sale on the stage

 

Links From The Episode:

Reib Law

Scott’s special gift for you

Presentation: How To Grow And Monetize Your Podcast

Grow Your Influence Book Series

Free Video Series: Profitable Training Course Launch

Breakthrough Success Podcast

Check out this episode!

3 Steps To Ensure You Follow-Up With Anyone

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The follow-up…a wicked creature that puts our memory and prioritization skills to the ultimate test.

Not now, but later…and a very specific later.

Mess up or forget, and you might not get a second chance.

Dig through your inbox like a junk draw, and you might find a follow-up request from one year ago. Ugh!

Being asked to follow-up isn’t enjoyable. We crave instant gratification, and in a world that says, “Follow-up,” we’ve got to put the instant gratification on hold.

Following up with people at the right time is an essential skill to master. It leaves a solid impression that can open the door to more opportunities.

With that in mind, here are three ways that you can ensure that you’ll follow-up with anyone who asks you to follow up with them.

 

#1: Set A Reminder On Your Smartphone

If you’re like most people, you spend more time with your smartphone in your pocket or in the same room than time sleeping in your bed.

We’ve become attached to our smartphones, and we can use that to our advantage.

Each smartphone comes with a few apps. One of those apps is the reminder app.

Whenever someone asks that you follow-up with them, set a reminder to follow-up with that specific person on the specific date they asked you to follow-up with them.

This is by far the best tactic of the three, but this isn’t the only one you should utilize.

 

#2: Get Active On Their Social Media

Grant Cardone knows who I am. Why is that? I’ve been trying to get him on Breakthrough Success since Summer 2017.

I had a brief email conversation with Grant and some back-and-forth with his assistants. I’ve been setting reminders on my iPhone to ensure I reach out to the right people at the right time (this is still in progress).

But someone like Grant Cardone gets so much interaction each day that it’s hard to keep up. We’re talking about a guy who gets over 100,000 views for his IG TV video 5 hours after he publishes it…

And that’s just one post. We’re not even talking about other social networks or his inbox. Think about how many people are reaching out to Grant and requesting an interview or something else.

It would probably take more than a day for him to read every email or comment he receives today. And people like Grant also get super busy with new products and opportunities.

I bring this up because these kinds of people are some of the people who may ask you to follow-up. If you set your reminder and reach out 6 months later as told, it’s going to feel like a re-introduction for the other person.

To mitigate this effect, I go on social media and engage with their content.

I like and comment on many of Grant’s posts. He’s liked some of my comments and even replied to some of them. Sadly, I couldn’t find a screenshot of these exchanges, but I did find one I had with Lewis Howes…another great person I will have as a guest on Breakthrough Success someday.

 

I bring this up because if you engage with people on social media, they remember who you are.

If they remember who you are, the follow-up becomes much easier. When you do follow-up, they know who you are and don’t have to scroll through all of the previous emails to remember (something that few high profile people have the time to do).

 

#3: Network With People In Their Networks

The easiest way to get on my mom’s good side is if I say you’re a great person, and then when you meet her, you’re still that same great person.

It’s a different dynamic if I reach out and make that kind of a recommendation.

In business, it’s no different. In between now and the follow-up date, you can reach out to people close to the person you’re following up with.

Let’s say you wanted to meet up with Mark Cuban from Shark Tank. If he says, “I’m interested. Let’s follow-up in six months,” you can follow the first two tactics we covered earlier.

However, what if, during those six months, you reach out to all of the other sharks from Shark Tank and they all like you and go on your podcast.

Now you have more leverage with Mark Cuban. You can mention in the follow-up that you’re friends with the other sharks, and they might recommend you to Mr. Cuban.

While this is an unlikely scenario since all of the sharks are super busy working on their businesses and others, it adds meaning to the concept.

A more plausible route would be to build relationships any existing partners, brand ambassadors, assistants, and former employees of the person you’re reaching out to.

Having those people in your network serves as validation. It’s like reaching out to me and saying Seth Godin thinks you’re awesome and you had my brother on your podcast. Seth Godin has been my role model since the very early stages of my entrepreneurial journey.

And if you do something good for my brother first, you’re getting moved up higher on the priority list.

 

In Conclusion

The more you personalize your emails and the relationships you build from now to the follow-up, the more likely you are to get a positive response.

Depending on who you reach out to, it can take time for the relationship to reach new levels. Almost two years later, I haven’t given up on having Grant as a guest on the show.

Our relationship has grown during these two years. It’s just that in between world tours and organizing one of the biggest business events in the country, he has to be careful with how he uses his time–and with all of the engagement he gets, that means turning down some really good opportunities.

What are your thoughts on these follow-up tactics? Do you have any questions for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Blueprint For Attracting 10 High-Quality Clients In The Next 30 Days With Your Podcast

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podcast clients

Want to see how I can help you grow your podcast? Schedule a free strategy session today!

A podcast is your goldmine for attracting high-quality clients to your business. Podcasts give you the ability to attract listeners and guests to your show. And while there’s already so many blogs and YouTube channels out there, podcasting is ripe with opportunity. 

Convince and Convert laid out several fascinating statistics for podcasting in 2018. They provide 13 important statistics, but these are the three we should pay attention to.

  • In 2018, Six Million More Americans Listen to Podcasts Weekly versus 2017
    • Takeaway: Podcasts are growing
  • 23 Percent of Americans Have Listened to Podcasts in the Car
    • Takeaway: You can’t read blog posts or watch videos while driving. Podcasting provides a competitive advantage due to the audio nature of the content
  • 18 Percent of Americans Now Own Smart Speakers
    • Takeaway: More smart speakers are coming soon, and more people will say, “Alexa, play the podcast Breakthrough Success.” It helps to mention 49% of podcasts are listened to at home…BUT wait until smart speakers are built into cars and podcasts become as mainstream as radios. It’s already happening.

Podcasting is growing, and if you have a podcast, you’re riding a big wave right now. For people who don’t have a podcast, it’s best to first decide what your show will be about and who you’ll serve.

We won’t dive too deep into starting a podcast, but it’s worth mentioning for anyone who doesn’t have a podcast yet. 

You can host your podcast using a site like Libsyn, Pippa, Blubrry, or another podcast hosting company. I personally use Libsyn because it allows me to easily publish podcast episodes on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and on other podcast players. 

Your costs for producing episodes depends on how many you produce. I produce 3 episodes each week for Breakthrough Success. That comes to roughly $20/mo on Libsyn and around $28/episode after I pay my audio editor and show notes writer. At 3 episodes per week, it comes to about 14 episodes per month. 

I also spend $20/mo for Acuity which makes scheduling episodes a breeze. You get most of the features with a $10/mo account, but I run several calendars on Acuity which is why I pay $20/mo.

I also use Skype’s Call Recorder to record podcast episodes. If I want to record a video interview, I’ll use Zoom.

My total expenses for hosting the podcast stand at around $450/mo. Why would I undertake an investment like that when I could use that $450/mo on other things (or save it. Or buy stocks and real estate).

The answer is that one $997/mo client pays off all of those expenses. And my podcast brings in more than enough clients to pay for itself.

Plus I get to interview influencers and learn so much from them while providing my listeners with epic content 🙂 

 

How Much Money Can You Make Podcasting

Client attraction is one of the top ways to make money with your podcast. Remember how I mentioned you can get $997/mo clients by hosting a podcast? 

Get 9 of those types of clients from your podcast, and you’re at a nifty 6-figure income. Get 21 of those clients and you’re making over $250K every year. 

The math adds up, and the best part is that client attraction isn’t the only way you can make money with your podcast. Some people listening to your show won’t want to become your clients right away. 

You need to strengthen the relationship with them through your episodes and get them to put some skin in the game. “Putting skin in the game” is marketing talk for turning a listener into a customer, even if it means a $1 purchase. 

It’s very easy to create something and charge $1 for it. In most cases however, you’re better off pricing that product at $7 or at $5/mo to boost your profitability.

The product I promote on Breakthrough Success depends on the timing. Right now, I’m promoting the heck out of Podcast Domination. I’ve mentioned it in every episode lately and charge $0.99 during the preorder phase. 

Some of the people who buy Podcast Domination may become clients in the future. But the great thing is that each customer is a strong lead. I consciously write my books with the intention of building the dialogue, landing more clients, and boosting overall product sales. My books act like silent salesmen.

This blog post is a silent salesman, and I hope you buy my book through this link 🙂

Oops. Not so silent anymore. We all gotta make money to continue pursuing our dreams at a high level of intensity. 

But going back to the book, I use the book to achieve a few key objectives:

  • Fulfill the promise that a reader will learn how to grow, launch, and monetize their podcast by reading the book. If you don’t fulfill your promises (i.e. unethical clickbait), nothing else matters.
  • Demonstrate my expertise because potential clients only hire people who demonstrate high expertise and/or a low price. Since I don’t underprice myself, I focus on providing massive value to demonstrate I know what I’m talking about.
  • Provide a call-to-action. At the END of the book, I tell readers how they can schedule a free strategy call with me. I DO NOT include this link at the beginning of the book. 

While I’d get more strategy call sessions by including the call-to-action at the beginning of the book, some people would find that link through Amazon’s preview option.  

That preview options allows you to view the first 10% of any Kindle book free of charge. That means I’d be on strategy calls with some people who didn’t put any of their skin in the game. Sometimes you can turn these people into clients, but it’s much easier to convert someone who has already made some kind of investment in what you’re doing, no matter how big or small.

Remember, at $997/mo, you only need 9 clients to make 6-figures. You just need 6 clients if you raise your services to $1497/mo. 

 

How To Charge Those Kinds Of Prices

The higher you charge, the fewer clients and customers you need to reach your income goals.”

For some people, charging $97 for a consultation session is difficult. Technically, it’s easy. Just change the order page or PayPal button to reflect the new price. However, some people don’t believe their consultation session is worth $97. These people are underpricing themselves.

Other people command $1997 price points just to spend an hour with them. There are services that cost five figures each month, and some people have no problem writing a $1 million check for a Lamborghini. 

$997/mo is the example I’ve used, but if you can (note: yes, you can) charge higher than $997/mo, then you need fewer clients to hit your income goals. 

Ask yourself what it would take to double your price without doubling the time you spend on each activity. You don’t go from $97 to $197 by going from a 30 minute consultation session to a 1 hour consultation session. How can you make that same jump without the extra 30 minutes.

The two answers to this question are demonstrating your expertise and showcasing your credibility. It’s no wonder the highest priced products and services are flooded with testimonials.

Want to get high profile testimonials? It’s not as difficult as you think. Interview high profile guests on your podcast. Build relationships with them. Tell them about your product or service and offer it for free (for an ongoing service like scheduling social media content, offer one free month). 

Then you’ll start getting testimonials from key players in your niche. Some of those same people may become clients or buy a bunch of your products. Even if none of those key players become long-term clients, those testimonials will provide you with strong social proof as more people come across your products and services. 

Notice how the podcast helps with a key element in converting people into clients? If you do it right, you can also use the podcast to demonstrate your expertise as well. You can release a solo episode every week, share insights in between a guest’s answers, and do a bunch of things to demonstrate your expertise during each episode.

 

So How Do We Actually Get Clients

Everything you’ve currently read has been the set-up for attracting clients with your podcast. If you have been skimming, I recommend quickly scrolling up and gleaning the key highlights from what I mentioned earlier.

Most prospects turn into clients through free strategy sessions. Almost everyone in the business leads people into a free strategy session to convert them into a client. Anytime I’ve hired a coach, I made that decision based on a free strategy session. 

If you want clients, then you will need an Acuity account. Acuity makes it easy for you to create a calendar that only shows the times when you are available. That way, it’s easier for prospects to pick times that work for you instead of engaging in a back-and-forth conversation to find the ideal time.

acuity scheduling calendar

If you even have to engage in that kind of back-and-forth conversation, you will lose clients.

Acuity is the best option available, but it comes with a universal problem all calendar apps come with. The long link problem. 

Remember, you’re goal is to recruit clients with your podcast. If we were talking about blog posts, you could easily include a hyperlink to your schedule page and move on.  

But with a podcast, that option doesn’t exist. You have to verbally say what the link is. I ran into this problem when promoting my book Podcast Domination. On a blog, I can just include that hyperlink in there.

On a podcast, I have to figure out how to tell people to visit this link:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FSHGR9N 

I’d have to say Amazon dot com slash gp slash product slash B07FSHGR9N during the episode. That’s hard to say while keeping the episode natural. It’s even harder for a listener to remember.

Especially if that listener is driving like the 23% of Americans who listen to podcasts in the car.

I took that same link and turned it into this:

www.marcguberti.com/pd 

Much easier for me to say and even easier for a listener to remember.

Marc Guberti dot com slash P D is much easier for people to remember than the other one. 

How do you create links like this? If you have a WordPress powered blog, I recommend the Pretty Links plugin. It’s the one I used to create the link above, and I also get to track stats. By creating a custom link for my podcast, I can track how many clicks can be specifically attributed to my podcast. 

You can do the same thing with bit.ly links. You can customize the text that appears after the slash. The link http://bit.ly/podcastdomination also gets you to the book’s Amazon Page. 

The only danger with using bit.ly is that your ideal link might be taken. For instance, bit.ly/pd will send you over to someone’s Flickr Profile. Therefore, I can’t use that customization to link to my book. 

 

Distribute Each Episode For Added Exposure

You now have a solid foundation for attracting clients with your podcast. Now you need to spread the word and attract more listeners to your show. 

You could technically still reach your 10 client goal without getting a single podcast download, but it helps big time to have a strong listener base. More listeners means more potential clients.

You have to start by getting your podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, and Spotify at the very minimum. The more podcast players you can get on, the better. 

That’s something you get out of the way the moment you start your podcast. A good podcast hosting company like Libsyn will provide you with quick and simple instructions on how to get your podcasts on those places. 

You should also get your podcast on Alexa. Since that’s still new, I’ll briefly talk about it since home speakers are still an emerging trend. All you have to do is fill out TuneIn’s podcast submission page and wait for approval.

alexa for podcasts

If you ask Alexa to play a podcast, it will search on TuneIn to find a podcast that matches up with your request.

That’s why if you say, “Alexa, play the podcast Breakthrough Success,” Alexa will play the latest episode. My podcast was approved for TuneIn and now Alexa can play the Breakthrough Success Podcast.

 

Create A Social Media Posting Calendar

The real distribution begins when you create a social media posting calendar for your podcast. This is where you share your podcast multiple times across all of your social networks. 

Most people make the mistake of only posting about their new episodes on the days they come out. There’s no follow-up in this approach which leaves a lot of traffic on the table.

For each new piece of content, you need a weeklong calendar of aggressive promotion. Create several custom tweets, post on Facebook, pin on Pinterest, post on Instagram, reach out to influencers, and promote your episodes as far as you can promote them.

For the custom tweets, I include images and quotes from the show. When I include a quote, I always tag the guest. That way, the guest sees I tagged him/her and is therefore more likely to share my content. 

Your social media posting calendar may look different depending on your frequency, but you should plan at least a week out. Even when that week is over, you should still continue to occasionally promote each episode you create. 

To this day, I’m still promoting Episode #1 of Breakthrough Success because it’s still valuable and a bunch of people haven’t listened to it yet. I also want to give my audience the gift of seeing where I was when I was starting out with the show. You only realize how far you’ve come when you take a look at some of your past stuff.

 

Distribute Even Further With Repurpose.io

Repurpose.io is an awesome tool that allows you to do as the name suggests—repurpose your podcast episodes. 

You can turn your podcast episodes into YouTube and Facebook Watch videos for $12/mo. Before this tool, I invested several hours to coming up with audio snippets from certain episodes and posting them on YouTube. However, it was tedious and I didn’t see a big enough ROI.  

Repurpose.io is a game changer because it’s all automated. You set it up once and all of your future episodes get published on your YouTube and Facebook channels. I currently don’t have Facebook Watch set-up, but here’s how a Repurpose.io video looks on YouTube.

Pretty nice set-and-forget for $12/mo. You can also pay $20/mo if you want to do this with multiple podcasts and/or Facebook Watch channels.

Interview More People On Your Podcast

Do you remember when I said you could get clients with your podcast without getting a single listener? I wasn’t joking.

Every guest you interview on your podcast is a potential client. You’re in the middle of a sales call the moment the guest joins you on Skype or Zoom depending on what you use to record episodes. 

If you interview 100 people for your podcast and get 10% of them to convert, you’ve got 10 new clients. You can interview people who you believe would be great potential clients to work with. You can determine in the conversation if the potential client would be easy or difficult to work with and make your pitch accordingly.

While getting more listeners helps with attracting guests on your show, I find that very few people ask for download numbers. It doesn’t matter if you’re getting thousands of downloads or less than 10 downloads per episode for most potential guests. They just want to be on more podcasts. 

 

100 > 100

Most podcast hosts with 100 episodes under their belt get there by interviewing 100 people. Some get there by interviewing slightly less than 100 people because of the intro episode and a few other episodes. Other hosts get there with a solo show and don’t interview anyone (to that, I say you’re missing out on a lot of relationship building).

Some podcast hosts with 100 episodes have interviewed more than 100 people, hence 100 > 100. In 100 episodes, you can interview more than 100 people. To break that down, in one episode, you can interview more than one person.

In fact, you can technically interview as many people as you want in one episode. Nothing is stopping you from interviewing 3 or 4 people in the same episode.

Just arrange with a group of people to all join in on Skype or Zoom at the same time. Then, ask questions and let all of the guests answer each of the questions you ask. You can allow conversations to develop between guests to add a different flavor to your episodes. 

That’s 300-400 potential clients in 100 episodes if all of your episodes are round tables. That’s a lot of potential.

How Guests Become Clients

Earlier I mentioned how you can shorten your link using Pretty Links if you use a WordPress blog or by using bit.ly if you don’t have that luxury. That shortened link is essential to turn guests into clients.

Very few guests will become clients on the spot. Most of them will want a strategy session with you so they can see how you would help them. During the episode, you’re going to mention that link and provide your listeners with the call-to-action.

Your guest is going to hear that same call-to-action intended for your listeners. And if you think about it, your guests are also your listeners. They listen to what you say, wait for you to ask the next question, and then answer it. 

If a guest sees you as an expert, they’ll follow up about the free strategy session you mentioned earlier in the episode. You also have the pre and post episode conversations to drive the free strategy call home. 

It’s important to not push the conversation towards the free strategy session. Don’t start off by telling the guest about your free strategy call offer. Let the conversation develop. 

If the guest asks you what else you do besides the podcast, you can then mention your services and mention that you offer a free strategy session. If the guest expresses he/she has a pain point that you solve, mention that you can solve that problem and you can jump on a strategy session with him/her on a future date. 

Some guests won’t be interested in buying your services, but they’ll know people who are interested. For this group of guests, you can ask them for referrals. I only recommend asking for referrals if you get into a conversation about what you do and believe the interview went well. 

 

The Final Step Of The Strategy

Hosting your own podcast allows you to grow an audience and have guests on your show. Both of those groups of people are potential clients. But there’s one more core group we need to tap into for maximum success.

The final step is to interview podcast hosts in your niche. Once you’ve honed in on your pitch and have had some guests on your show, it’s time to reach out. 

Some of the podcast hosts you interview will then invite you to be a guest on their shows. This is what you want. When you get interviewed, the host is now a potential client. Depending on how much you wow that host, you might get a client on the spot. 

You also get access to that host’s listeners. At the end of a podcast episode, the host traditionally asks a question like, “Where else can we find you?” When you get that question, tell listeners they can schedule a free strategy call with you. 

As you get on more podcasts with this strategy, more podcast hosts will reach out to you and invite you to be on their shows. Eventually, you won’t have to do the outreach anymore. All of the podcast hosts will come swarming to you. With each interview, you’ll get your message in front of more potential clients.

At this point, you may have a client overflow. All that’s left to do for this final step is to find and reach out to podcast hosts.

 

Finding Podcast Hosts

Finding podcast hosts is the easy part. One of the most common ways to find podcast hosts is by searching through podcasts on iTunes and Stitcher (while I like Spotify, it’s still a very music oriented platform, so I recommend doing this research on a platform that only displays podcasts).

Just search your niche, find podcasts, see which ones take guests, and reach out to those hosts (more on outreach coming soon).

There are two other ways you can find podcast hosts.

The first tactic is to go on LinkedIn and search “[your niche] podcast host.” LinkedIn will then display a bunch of people who are podcast hosts in your niche.

All you do at that point is start building relationships.

The second tactic is to google “[your niche] podcasts.” Instead of seeing all of the podcast hosts like you can on LinkedIn, Google will provide you articles. Most of those articles will allow you to easily identify the top podcasts in your niche.

For instance, when I Google “business podcast,” I get these results

top business podcasts

A lot of these articles lead to curated lists of top podcasts in your niche. These podcasts are the big fish, so getting on them may be more challenging. However, if you get on one of these podcasts, you have a much greater chance to get on other podcasts.

 

Reaching Out To Podcast Hosts

Once you find podcast hosts, you need to reach out to them and ask to be a guest on their podcasts. You’ll get some rejections but mostly a bunch of yeses as podcast hosts need guests to fill up their episode calendars.

You reaching out to them saves them the time of finding another guest for their show. While this sounds like a win-win scenario, plenty of people know about this win-win scenario.

I’ve received hundreds of emails from people asking to be on Breakthrough Success. I couldn’t cater to them all, and that was even back when I was releasing five episodes each week. As a podcast host gets more guests coming their way and reaches out to more guests, that host will become more picky.

For instance, I publish three episodes each week on Breakthrough Success. I know that’s a little under 40 episodes per quarter. That’s a little less than 40 people who I can interview, and the more yeses I say now, the fewer yeses I can say in the future. 

Asking to be a guest on someone’s show isn’t enough anymore, especially for established podcasts. The key to getting on more podcasts is to make the host’s life as easy as possible. 

If you’ve hosted a podcast, you know there’s a lot of prep work. Here’s a list of what goes into producing an episode:

  1. Finding the guest
  2. Scheduling the interview
  3. Determining a good topic
  4. Writing the guest’s bio
  5. Writing questions
  6. Conducting the interview
  7. Editing the episode
  8. Writing the show notes
  9. Scheduling the episode

That’s a lot of steps, and some of them are very time consuming. Since I delegate most of the post-production, I typically spend most of my time on Steps 3-6. 

As previously mentioned, you want to make the host’s life as easy as possible. The best way you can do that is by providing a 1-sheet that cuts down on the host’s prep time. On my 1-sheet, I include my bio, a list of suggested topics, and pictures of a few podcasts I’ve appeared on. 

I opted against including a list of suggested questions on my 1-sheet because I rarely look at the suggested questions on other people’s 1-sheets. The problem with suggested questions is that some hosts may simply ask all of those suggested questions in the interview.

I prefer to create a different experience on my podcast by asking questions that few people would think of. Similarly, I don’t want everyone asking me the same questions when I appear on other podcasts (except the backstory question which is virtually impossible to avoid and a good ice breaker).

Including your 1-sheet will increase the amount of yeses you hear from the podcast hosts you reach out to. You can create your 1-sheet using KeyNote/PowerPoint or Canva. For my 1-sheet, I used KeyNote and exported the slide as an image. Regardless of how you create your 1-sheet, it will work wonders for getting interviewed on more podcasts.

 

In Conclusion

Your podcast can bring in all of the clients you’ll ever need for your business. Before you start using your podcast to attract clients, set a monthly income target.

Then determine how many clients you need to hit your monthly target. Get clear on the numbers before you take action.

Then it comes down to interviewing many guests and attracting even more listeners to your show. Combine that with promoting your free strategy session, and you’ll have a winning formula for your podcast. 

You can then take that winning formula on the road by appearing on other podcasts in your niche.

What do you use your podcast for? Do you have a podcast or are eager to start one? How are you attracting clients for your business? Have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

Want to see how I can help you grow your podcast? Schedule a free strategy session today!

5 Principles That Will Strengthen Your Mindset

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Your mindset is critical for your success. We all know this, but we need to consciously strengthen them.

Strengthening your mindset isn’t a quick fix. It’s something you do gradually. Some people can have an instant life-changing transformation, but even with that, the mindset determines how long that event affects you.

Some people feel completely transformed during the New Year only to lose that feeling halfway into February.

Strengthening your mindset is continual. It’s something you never stop doing. With that said, here are five principles you can use to strengthen your mindset.

 

#1: Achieve A Daily Or Weekly 1% Improvement

If you gradually improve, you’ll see the exponential gains later on. Improving at 1% every day will result in a 3778% improvement in a year.

If you improve by 1% every week, the improvement is 168% improvement.

I know everyone prefers the 3778% improvement over the 168% improvement, but some goals are different than others. It’s possible to achieve a 1% improvement each day for some of your goals. For others, weekly is the only possible option.

However, a 1% improvement isn’t just based on results. It’s also based on actions. Let’s say I write 1% more words every day for a given time. We’ll set the starting point as 1,000 words.

By the end of Day 1, I am at 1,010 words. It’s not a groundbreaking performance, but look at what compounded growth does…

1 Week: 1,072 words per day
1 Month: 1,347 words per day
1 Quarter: 2,448 words per day
2 Quarters: 5,995 words per day
1 Year: 37,783 words per day

Okay, I know no one is writing 37,783 words every day. You may decide to set that goal if you can build a team of writers around you, but chances are you and your team aren’t writing that many words each day.

However, the rest of those numbers are very doable. And a 1% growth isn’t asking for much. In the beginning, it’s just an extra 10 words. The growth compounds and adds up. When you hit 1,100 words per day, a 1% increase means an additional 11 words per day putting you at 1,111 words per day.

It’s not a consistent +10 each day but instead a consistent +1% each day. That’s a big difference.

So what happens when you reach 5,995 words per day (you might as well write those extra five to hit 6K)? You can continue to grow your word count, but you’ll eventually square off against a limit.

You have to write 14,681 words every day if you continue growing by 1% for a third straight quarter. But do you have time to write that many words? It’s easy to go from 1,000 words to 1,010 words and scale up to the first two quarters.

However, in the third quarter, you’re adding hundreds and sometimes thousands of extra words to your daily routine. You’ve trained for it, but time is finite.

It’s not like I could increase my weekly mileage by 10% all the time. Eventually, I’d have to run 100 miles every day (mathematically speaking).

I’d work towards it gradually, but I still believe it would have a heavy toll on my legs. 100 miles per day is A LOT to ask any runner, and for most of us 24 hours isn’t enough to run that long.

I don’t have to keep proving time is finite. We all know that’s the truth. But what happens when you’re writing 5,995 words every day and you are comfortable writing at that pace?

Pick something else to improve by 1% every day while maintaining the new routine you built.

I listen to audiobooks for 40 minutes each day during the school year during my commute. A 1% increase puts me at 40 minutes and 24 seconds. Sometimes I’ll blow past the 1% limit but set 40 minutes and 24 seconds as the minimum threshold. As long as I improve at the minimum 1% threshold every day, I’m happy with my progress.

 

#2: Live On The Edges

Most people start their day in the middle of it. Anything after 8 am, some people may be awake in your house. Rush hour traffic is building. Your part of the world is awake at that time.

I don’t start my day in the middle. Yes, 8 am is still early in the day, but not early enough to live on the edges. If you live on the edges, you’ll grow your edge on the competition (I had to).

My day starts at 3:30 am. That’s when I wake up and go through eight books. I’ll read a section or two and then march on to the next book.

At 4 am, I’m doing work. I’m writing blog posts, planning out videos (socially, I am not a morning person. I tried doing videos once at 5 am. Never again), marketing my business, and any of my other priorities. I’ll respond to emails later in the day.

Someday, I’ll start staying up until midnight because I have no problem with doing videos late in the day. That’s how I live on the edges. I get to bed at midnight and wake up at three.

I know what you’re thinking. Glaring health problem. Just three hours of sleep. This former teen entrepreneur went crazy at 20.

I get most of my sleep in the middle of the day. I’ll recharge when everyone else is hustling. For me, that’s usually in the afternoon. Productivity drops at that time anyway (What time do you eat your lunch? How do you feel afterward?).

I take my nap when everyone else is hustling but gradually losing productivity. When I wake up, I feel fully recharged. That’s why I can see myself doing videos until midnight during the summer.

My schedule won’t work for everyone, but by using my schedule as an example, you can find yourself less stuck and distracted. If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s better for you to go to the grocery store at noon than at 5 pm. Beat rush hour so you’re not in a long line with a lot of other people rushing to get the same food.

That grocery store reference is just an example that can be applied to many areas. Start grinding before others start their day, and take your rest while everyone else is up and about.  

 

#3: Associate With The Best

You become who you associate yourself with. There are different versions of the same idea, but we need to keep it in mind.

When most people think about who they associate with, they think of about the people in their community. Most people have an “Oh well” mindset if they’re in a bad community.

However, you don’t just associate with the people in your community. You also associate with the people you pay attention to.

One of the people I associate with is Jim Rohn. I’ve listened to his audiobooks and read his books even though he passed away in 2009. I never read or listened to any of Jim’s books while he was alive.

People like Jim live on through their work. Other people who impact people in a big way are still alive, and you can consume their work too. The more of their work you consume, the more you assume their work ethic and mindset.

That’s why I enjoy reading Brian Tracy books. Brian has an excellent goal achieving mindset. Even better, he’s written many books, and that allows me to consume more of Brian’s content.

I can also go through the daily content that Gary Vaynerchuk publishes so I can get a deeper understanding of his mindset.

I know that in some cases, I’ll come across insights that I already know. However, reminding yourself of those insights, but more importantly, forcing yourself to continue associate with the best will allow you to someday surpass them.

I study my role models with the belief that I will and must someday surpass them. When I surpass my role models, I want other people look at my journey and hope to surpass me someday. Assuming we have the right role models in mind, this would make the world a better place.

 

#4: Learn Every Day

This goes in line with associating with the best. Part of that association is consuming content that arms you with new knowledge and ways of thinking.

This isn’t a once in a while activity. This is a daily activity. You should invest at least 3% of your income towards self-education. That’s how you make a fortune instead of just a living.

That’s why I listen to audiobooks during my commutes. It’s also why I read blog posts and books on my smartphone instead of playing the latest video game app.  

 

#5: Continue Taking Action

Just because advice is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy. During good times and bad times, you must continue taking action. Keep on creating new content, promoting your brand, and doing everything else to up level your game.

Living on the edges will give you the uninterrupted time that will help you take massive action. Before you take any action, make sure you set your priorities. What are the three things you need to do today for it to be considered a success?

Keep taking action. If you struggle with taking action, give yourself reachable goals and more reasons to take action. I’ll continue writing down all of the reasons for me to take action just to motivate myself to do more than what I’m already doing.

 

In Conclusion

Your mindset determines your success. There’s no way around it. That means if you strengthen your mindset, you increase the likelihood of your success.

There’s no guaranteed way to become successful, but there are guaranteed ways to increase your chances of becoming successful.

This blog post outlined five key practices that will increase your chances of becoming successful (however you define it).

Now it just comes down to implementation and living based on these principles.

What were your thoughts on the list? Do you have any principles you’d like to share? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.

The Top 4 Email List Building Strategies

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email list growth

Email list building is one of the most important areas of your brand. You’ll get a dramatically more effective response when you send an email to 10,000 people than when you send a tweet (or any social media post) to 10,000 people.

There are plenty of ways to build an email list. You don’t want to master the wrong strategies, but you also don’t want to rely on one method.

For a very long time, I solely relied on Twitter to grow my email list. My efforts paid off as over 10,000 content creators joined my list, but I knew that to achieve monumental growth, I needed additional email list streams.

We understand the concept of having multiple income streams, but we need to understand just as well the concept of having multiple email list growth streams.

I wrote a blog post earlier containing 50 tactics to grow your email list. While the tactics will help you grow your email list, the best tactics boil down to these four strategies.

 

#1: Evergreen Your Social Media Promotion

I don’t manually send tweets about my landing pages anymore. I use ViralTag to put all of my tweets in a cycle.

To not make myself too dependent on Twitter, I also created a posting cycle for Pinterest. This posting cycle was a bit more complicated as I have to account for several boards, but it was well worth the effort.

As a side note, I also delegate my social media growth to other freelancers. That way, I can focus on implementing other strategies and creating more content.

 

#2: Optimize Your Site For Maximum Conversions

optimization

If you get hundreds of thousands of visitors, but you have no method of converting them, then you won’t grow your email list. This email list building strategy is a focus on the visitor’s experience and getting them to subscribe.

As soon as visitors come on the blog, they are greeted by a welcome mat designed to get more opt-ins for a free offer. Pop-ups, the sidebar, and the blog posts  themselves get even more opt-ins.

I use ThriveLeads to optimize my blog for generating more leads. It allows me to utilize all of the capabilities I just mentioned and more. AppSumo is another great option as well.

 

#3: Create An Affiliate Program

I am an affiliate for Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever Course. Michael Hyatt has impacted a lot of people, including some of the top players in various niches. When it came time to promote the course, many affiliates jumped on board.

The result?

In less than two weeks, all of the affiliates combined brought in over 80,000 opt-ins. You read that correctly, and I did not type in an extra zero.

That’s roughly 8,000 new subscribers every DAY. Many people would be very happy if that was their month.

Michael Hyatt was able to do it in one day.

I’m not saying that all affiliate programs lead to these types of results, but they will have a big impact on your business.

I grew my email list by over 25% by hosting the Content Marketing Success Summit and Productivity Virtual Summit. CMSS got me past 10,000 subscribers. When you get a team of people to promote your offers, you can reach out to far more people than you could have ever reached out to on your own.

You can use a service like SamCart to create your own affiliate program. When you recruit affiliates, it’s essential to communicate with them through a custom email list and a Facebook Group Page. These two communication platforms will be more than enough to keep your affiliates on the same page for what to promote and when.

Michael Hyatt’s course promotion was a launch which means there was a beginning date and an end date. In addition to running a launch style product launch, you can also run an evergreen promotion so affiliates can set their social media posts in a continuous cycle and constantly promote your landing pages.

 

#4: Use Facebook Ads 

facebook ads

I recommend trying the other three before you give Facebook ads a try. The reason is that you don’t know how well your landing page converts until it gets enough visibility. You don’t want to use Facebook ads for a landing page that doesn’t convert.

You also don’t want to use Facebook ads for a landing page that converts well for getting opt-ins, but the autoresponder doesn’t bring in any sales. Then you’re losing money in the short-term even though you are growing your email list.

With that said, Facebook ads are the dominant player in the social media space. There are plenty of ways to optimize your Facebook ads, but I’ll give you the basic math you need to run a successful Facebook ad.

You’ll need to pick a Facebook ad that is measured by the cost per conversion. Before you run your Facebook ad, you should know how much a conversion is worth to you.

Let’s say you have a landing page with an effective autoresponder. Based on your past results, you know that the average subscriber spends $5 in the autoresponder. If you can convert subscribers at $2 per conversion with the Facebook ad, you make a $3 profit for each new subscriber you get from the Facebook ad.

These are the ads that become successful. It’s not just about optimizing your ad for Facebook standards, but it’s also about optimizing your autoresponder so Facebook optimization is a worthwhile effort.

To take this strategy a step further, you can focus on promoting a webinar. Webinars tend to convert very well from opt-in and sales generation standpoints. When you have a webinar that converts really well, you can even make it evergreen so you don’t have to continuously perform the same presentation.

 

In Conclusion

Email list building strategies are all around us. The only ones that will work are the ones that you meaningfully implement. Of all of these strategies, evergreen social media posts is the easiest to implement. It’s an easy one-off task where you occasionally have to look at your posts to see what’s still working.

Optimizing your site for maximum conversions is similar but can involve more time and continuous testing to get better conversion rates.

Creating and growing your own affiliate program is much more involved, especially in the long-term. However, this approach can yield incredible results. With the exception of affiliate program fees and having a team behind him, Michael Hyatt didn’t have to pay a penny to get those 80,000+ subscribers.

You can run a Facebook ad before you start your own affiliate program. But the affiliate program would help you paint a better picture of what cost per conversion would allow you to make a profit.

What are your thoughts on these email list building strategies? Do you have any strategies for us? Do you have a question for me? Sound off in the comments section below.