Do Something, Do Anything

Alright so I’m moving forward at a pace that I normally would never go at.

I decided to go with a different website creator/editor/tester – ClickFunnels.

The reasoning?

They have easy to use templates and a drag and drop website page editor. I want maximum ease and speed to test new ideas. I can also integrate a new email list of potential leads with them as well.

I’ve let my product idea marinate over the course of the day and there’s so many opportunities and knowledge that I didn’t realize I had.

Most small businesses are owned by people who are very good at technical skill. Usually what happens is they begin working as a “technician” at a job – take a surf school for example. They start off as the instructors doing the actual service. Gradually as they get better and more experienced, they decide they might as work for themselves and start their own business – doing the same thing. They know how to deliver the service very well – sales and marketing, typically is a struggle.

Here’s where Business Beacon comes in. It’s a set of guides and products to help business owners setup and train their people to marketing and advertising opportunities with an ability to track ROI. BOOM.

I’ve decided instead of launching a product right away, I will create a funnel. Generally a funnel works like this:

1. A potential customer (lead) sees one of your Ads and clicks (there’s some incentive or solution to an identified problem of theirs — the “Lead Magnet”)
2. They exchange their email address for the “Lead Magnet”, typically a free, digital, and quickly consumed report/guide/file.
3. Using your email you provide value over the course of several emails softly alluding to specific products that offer in-depth guides and how-to’s
4. Provide a low-cost (<$10) product to this email list to start turning subscribers to paying customers
5. Continue adding value to your subscribers via email and begin offering higher end products/tools/services

So right now I’m setting up my “Opt-in Page” with a Lead Magnet report. I’m not actually going to create the report right now, rather, test certain sources of traffic (Facebook first) to get opt-ins.

PS. I used an old headline from a Cosmo magazine that I altered to fit the market

Sometimes with taking action, you just have to do it blindly. You’ll know more at the end pursing that action completely than you did before it. So dive in feet first.

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” – Pablo Picasso

Digital information/education products. This is how to leverage the power of the internet with one of the best business models around there. As Tim Ferriss says in the 4 Hour Workweek:

“…there is one class of product that meets all of our criteria, has a manufacturing lead time of less than a week in small quantities, and often permits not just an 8-10x markup, but a 20-50x markup. No, not heroin or slave labor.Too much bribing and human interaction required.

Information.

Information products are low-cost, fast to manufacture, and time-consuming for competitors to duplicate.”

A digital information product can be delivered instantly. It can be easily measured and scaled what marketing efforts are driving revenue. And the profit can be 90-90%.

So what do you create? There’s an intersection between the information that people actually want and will buy, with information that you are an expert at or is from your everyday life.

Generally speaking, there are 8 areas that people are inclined to buy to fulfill (from Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman):

Human beings are biologically programmed with the following eight desires:

1. 1. Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension.
   2. Enjoyment of food and beverages.
   3. Freedom from fear, pain, and danger.
   4. Sexual companionship.
   5. Comfortable living conditions.
   6. To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses.
   7. Care and protection of loved ones.
   8. Social approval.

   So if you’re able to trigger one of these core biological desires, we have a winner.

   I also used a few of ideas from The Four Hour Work Week and The $100 Startup to brainstorm ideas.

   The first was to determine any groups, industries, I belong to or understand what they want. This is widespread – but really think about ALL the groups you are a part of. I’m a surfer, engineer, entrepreneur, marketer, aspiring yogi, health food nut and many other things.

   The second was to figure out what people in these groups want. What are their needs/wants and how can we slot that back to the Core 8 areas?

   The third idea was to use a rating matrix, ranking product ideas 1-5  in several categories (impact, effort, profitability, and vision). The ranking is based on a sum of these numbers: 1 being low impact, high effort, low profitability, doesn’t align with your vision while 5 being high impact, low effort, high profitability, and aligning supremely with your vision. The higher the sum, the better the product is to pursue.

   I also tracked back on my days and wrote down what I do in as much detail as possible and try to highlight frustrations I have.

   Put all this together and you have a shortlist of ideas to pursue that you likely have knowledge in, solves your own problem, and can be leveraged digitally.

   So that’s how I came up with my top 3 ideas:

   1. Adwords guide for small businesses
   2. Guide on eating paleo
   3. Guide on getting optimal sleep

   I’m going to be doing some split testing and brainstorming for all of these ideas.

   Honestly this is a huge weight off my shoulders. I’ve really been waiting for avoiding the actual thinking process for these ideas. It was much simpler than I thought, and only took 45 minutes.

   Altogether I’m stoked on my progress today – tomorrow is more brainstorming and picking an idea to go with. I literally am already feeling myself hesitating to pick an idea…so tomorrow it is!

 

Stop thinking. Go do something. Go do anything. Go.

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.” ~ Bruce Lee

I’m a thinker. I care about what people think of me and how I come off. I love talking about goals, ideas, passions, and the future. But the thing is, talking isn’t action. Talking isn’t doing. Talking is a lot like consuming.

Action is about producing. Action is about building. Action is about the journey to the destination.

We all have goals. We all have ideas of what our ideal life looks like. But so few of us get there. “Life” gets in the way. Do do something great, it takes time, energy and focus. It take willpower. It takes engagement.

I’ve had periods in my life where I was fully engaged. Fully consumed by my goals – and I loved it. The days melted by because I was building something towards my goals. But situations change and you need to constantly be setting more goals and taking more action.

This blog is about that. To stop being paralyzed by talk of dreams, and do go reach them. I’m not sure if I’ll get exactly where I’m aiming for, but I know that I will do something great because of constant action.

I know more than enough. I’ve been learning/reading/listening/talking about making moves and reaching goals my entire life, and actually did start taking action 2.5 years ago. But progress has stagnated and I need a new challenge.

My goal for January 2015 is financial freedom. Financial freedom can buy time. T More time is how I can reach my other goals (health, relationships, personal development).

I’m currently work a great engineering job, but it’s a 8am – 4:30pm commitment everyday. I know I’m capable of leveraging my knowledge with action into an income that is highly leveraged, automated, scaleable, and time/location independent.

Goal

Start a business in the next 30 days that generates $100/day in revenue.

Boundaries

• It needs to bring value into people lives
• I must be able to manage it with <1 hour a day
• It must have high profit margins (>50%)
• Email/writing is the only communication needed to run it
• It’s operations must allow me to be location and time independent
• I must write everyday on this site for the next 30 days while setting it up

So that’s it. Simple right? I already feel the challenge engulfing me. I’m excited. Part of this challenge is documenting as much of it as I can so you can gleam my mindsets and actions to inspire you to make changes in your life as well.