What do you do when the only time you have to exercise is at five in the morning and your body just doesn’t want to get out of bed? Or what do you do when the daily grind seems to be taking you one direction when your goals are supposed to take you another?

Is it possible to hit the pause button, and while the movie is on pause, change it to a completely different movie? Can such a drastic change happen for regular ole Janes and Joes? Can you wake up Clark, and like in the movies, still turn into Superman at will?

Can you just start living the life you want and become who you want? Just like that?

Well, I don’t know if you can or not. That’s something that is between you and yourself. Do you actually listen to that little voice inside that is telling you all you are capable of, or do you just roll with the punches and take what life brings your way?

For me, the way I do it, is with a simple phrase I learned long ago called “Be, Do, Have.”

For those of you who know what that means, I sure hope you’re living it. BE the person you want to be, DO the things that person would do and then you will HAVE the things that person has. The part that most people struggle with is always the beginning….the BE.

So at five in the morning, when the alarm clock goes off, do I reset it for seven, or can I BE the person I want to be. Honestly, that’s the secret for me. That’s exactly how I do it. It’s just a word, I know…but I repeat the word in my head when I hear that little voice inside. That voice just gets louder and louder, repeating the be, Be, BEEEEE….until I start to DO. At that point, with some consistency in Being and Doing, I will Have the health and strength I want for myself.

So it’s a good idea to scream it if you have to. Do what it takes. Be, Be, BE!

Tip of the day: When you are feeling a little poverty conscious, when thoughts of doubt about your financial future enter your mind frequently and things just don’t quite seem to be going your way, JUST LEAVE! Seriously, pack your suite case, get in the car and go somewhere that makes you feel good and prosperous. Get the heck out of Mayberry and go to a place where things are happening and the atmosphere is breath taking.

Spend the money it will take to get you there. It will be worth it!

Seriously though…..think about the most successful people you know. And if the most successful person you know is your best friends cousin Daryl, who won $1000 in the lottery once, think of the most successful person you know of…..a businessman, actor or athlete. Where do they hang out all the time? Do they stay in one spot?

NO! Successful people are on the move. Think about it, if you had all the money in the world and you started having feelings of doubt about your success, would you sit there and entertain that thought?

NO! You’d get up and replace that thought with a prosperous thought. And one of the best ways to do that is to have plenty of prosperous thoughts to replace it with.

Visiting Telluride Colorado gave me a dozen or more thoughts of prosperity! The waterfall, the cliffs, the Aspen trees in the fall and the snow tipped peaks were amazing. The town was busting with business and the weather was perfect. If I was having any thoughts of doubt or discouragement before I came here, believe me, they are gone. They’re insignificant now!

You see, there is a constant battle going on inside your head. The majority wants control and the majority is poverty, or averageness. Not even positive if averageness is a word, but it wants control, because everything in the world is pointing you in that direction. You’ve got to have some ammo to fight off the intruders. That ammo for me, today, was all I witnessed in Telluride.

If you haven’t been somewhere in a while, plan a trip. Not just to your mom’s house in the home town you came from, but to a place you have never been to before…a place that will inspire you. Take some pictures and record some video. Take your most favorite people in the world with you. Create some memories. It will be well worth it for you personally, and for your business. I promise!

One of the biggest selling points of a home based business is the System! S-Y-S-T-E-M, Save Yourself Time, Energy and Money. It’s already in place to ensure your success, or at least make it a bit easier for you to succeed. It brings in the all too familiar term, “turnkey.” It’s all about duplication and making things easier for the newest person in the company to get into profit quickly, or duplicate their Enrollers results.

Parts of the system includes scripts, lead generation and pre-built websites, so that when somebody finds your turnkey website, pre-populated with content and pictures, they can submit their contact information. That information then goes into a lead management system that sends out pre-written auto-responders that drip bits and pieces of motivational information about their decision to start a home business.

MY SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE…..I didn’t build my list and USE it properly.

For the first few years as a network marketer I used their turnkey websites and systems to generate my leads and I allowed those leads to go into their pre-built lead management systems. I took on the belief that once I called that lead and introduced the business to them, whether they got started with me or not, that their information was then useless. The lead was then dropped and I paid it no more attention, at least when it came to continued marketing.

I might as well have been throwing twenty dollar bills down the toilet!!

Although I made my profit from the sale, I missed out on continued, residual profits that can and will come from building your email list. I let tens of thousands of email addresses go to waste….Email addresses for people who were desperate for information on how to make money from home!

A huge part of creating an online presence(Part of my first mistake) is setting yourself up to win regardless. Having a contact form on your site that sends the information captured(email, phone number etc..) into an auto-responder system of YOUR OWN, is where it’s at. You wonder how people can make millions of dollars online with a blog and how network marketers can have continued success regardless of the opportunity they are part of. It’s because the real money, the real income comes from continually marketing to your list of subscribers….people that have opted into YOU and what you have to offer them. And if what you have to offer them is of value…..well….that equals income for you.

Right now, I use AWeber for building my list. In my opinion, it is the best one out there. I did a post a while back on starting an email marketing campaign comparing a few other services. Feel free to check it out.

And feel free to subscribe to my emails to see how I do things. You’ll find the form on the left side of this blog.

So I think my point was made. Do it right the first time. Build the list!

Unfortunately, Network Marketing companies come and go, or, you are someone that comes and goes, bouncing from one company to the next. Although a company seems solid, with a good product and great compensation, there’s no guarantee that it will be around forever.

My BIGGEST mistake as a home business owner, was putting all of my eggs into one basket. I put so much trust in the concept/product/owners of the company I was part of that I didn’t have a back-up plan. Now, if it’s all solid, there are no worries. But, if things go a different direction, if the company crashes, if the products lose their value or if any other variable happens that effects the company, it also directly effects your income. Instead of putting so much into the company, put that focus on the goal.

So imagine that 6 figure income you had managed to create while working your home business, suddenly gone, or significantly reduced. Now, if it was your doing, that’s one thing. But if was a direct correlation to something that happened in the company, that’s an entire different story! Without pointing fingers or taking a victims mentality, how does one recover from something like that?

Here’s how I recovered……I relied on the online presence I had. With the amount of content I have all over the net, the presence in social networking sites and the organic rankings on all major search engines, I had choices. With consistent, FREE traffic coming to my website, this site, a crash of a company wasn’t a complete disaster. All that did was gave me options.

I could…….

1. Join another business opportunity or….
2. Do something else with the traffic I was getting.

I could develop my own products and promote them on my site. I could completely monetize my website with sponsored listing from ad networks such as Adsense. I could continue to capture leads and sell them. I could promote affiliate products on my site. The list could go on and on.

So if you find yourself in a home based business, and you are purchasing leads, spending high dollar on CPC ads or don’t have a web presence, you may want to rethink your strategy. Set yourself up to win regardless of the opportunity.

One thing I teach people about marketing is to use three or four different sources of lead generation. If one or two drop out, you have the other two to rely on until they can be replaced. Without spreading yourself too thin, the same thing applies for your sources of income.

I believe in the Cortez concept of burning your boats, but I also believe in having a back up plan. Expect the best but prepare for the worst and you’ll never find yourself in a hard spot, without options.

Stay tuned for my SECOND BIGGEST MISTAKE in the next post!