How to Motivate Yourself to Achieve Your Goals
I’ve been sitting here wondering about the reasons why people make changes in their lives, both business and personal.
And I realised there are any number of possibilities why people seek change.
One reason is the pain of the status quo.
The saying, ‘if you do what you’ve always done, you will get what you’ve always got’, is something I can relate to and the memories are not ones I cherish.
At the beginning all I did was try to follow what other people said I needed to do.
Unfortunately, while there are some good people out there who give genuine advice, there are many more that are just out to make a quick buck and they’ll tell you anything to get you to buy their products.
And it can be extremely difficult to filter out the good from the bad when you have no idea which is which.
Believe me; I’m glad I’m past that stage, and something I hope I remember when others new to the industry ask me for advice.
Why do I say ‘I hope…’?
Because I’ve seen so many people coming out with their bullshit stories about how they struggled early on, lived in their cars and ate peanut butter and jam sandwiches…
…only to scam others out of their hard earned money.
I always assumed, in the early days, if those guys really did suffer like that before they made it big, surely they know how it feels and they’ll ensure the same doesn’t happen to others?
Wrong!
Either they were lying through their teeth… or they soon forgot where they were once upon a time.
After losing tens of thousands of pounds (that’s right, pounds), I learned my lesson, the hard way.
However, one thing I never did was to give up.
I struggled through and began to see the fruits of my labours.
And now, I want to give you a few bits of advice on how to cope in your businesses, online or off, when you feel like nothing is going right.
Here’s a list of things to keep in mind along the way to help motivate you in your quest for business success:
Aim to be the best. If you aim for the top and only hit the middle, it’s still a success. If you aim for the bottom, it’s likely that’s all you’ll hit.
Stay away from people who are negative, and surround yourself with successful people, things and places.
Never let anyone tell you ‘you can’t’. Always believe ‘you can’.
Keep an open mind and consider all possible options.
The more you know about your subject the more you’ll be motivated to endure when times are hard and things look bleak.
Be determined to do what you set out to do.
Never, ever, give up. When you give you, you fail. I carried on when everyone else thought I was failing. Heck I carried on even when I thought I was failing and wanted to chuck it all in. I didn’t give up and, from each failure, I learned a lesson – stop doing what doesn’t work, and carry on doing what does.
Do what you enjoy doing.
Plan as if you’re going to live for ever… live as if you’re going to die tomorrow. If you work to these ethics, you’ll work harder and better.
Don’t forget family and friends – you don’t need to involve them in your business, but you do need to involve them in your life.
Do as much as is necessary to get the job done, and then do a little more. It’s only when you truly exert yourself you’ll feel motivated to do more.
Never lose sight of your dreams. If you watched the movie ‘Collateral’ with Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, you’ll see that Foxx’s character always had a picture of his dream home in his taxi cab. And, whenever he needed a reminder as to why he was working so hard, he’d look at that picture. Hold on to your dreams.
When you’ve determined you want to achieve something, do it. Don’t wait for things to happen.
Always play fair. Never try to make your life by destroying the lives of others. That means no lying, cheating or stealing. Behave with the utmost integrity at all times.
Realise that not everything you want is going to go according to plan. If you prepare yourself for those times when things bomb, you’ll be able to cope better with it.
Practice – repeat what you know, over and over again. The more you do something, the better you’ll become. A martial artist doesn’t become a good kicker overnight. It takes hundreds and even thousand of practice kicks to perfect the kick you see them execute on the screen.
I’ll repeat this one again – Never quit. The moment you quit, you’ve lost.
Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can do today. This is one sure fire way of failing, or delaying success. Believe me, I know.
Self discipline – I plan my day. I know exactly what I was supposed to be doing this morning. I knew what I was supposed to be doing yesterday. And I know what I’m supposed to do tomorrow. However, I know I’ll have to ensure I stick to my routine or the best plans go to waste. Plan what you’re going to do… and do it.
Become a student of life. Discover all you can about your subject and beyond. The more you know, the better you’ll become in your business.
Learn to listen.
When I was a teenager I used to do bodybuilding. Every night I used to visualise how I wanted to be. And I took steps to reach those goals. I became so huge, friends used to joke they’d need to knock down their walls to let me into their homes. Visualization is an amazing tool if used correctly.
Whatever it is you want to achieve, believe you can. You have to want to achieve it so much so you can taste it.
Always remember, you are unique. You have something to offer others don’t. Find out what that is and nurture it.
I hope that list gives you some food for thought and helps you in your quest to achieve your goals.
Filed under internet business by on Feb 3rd, 2009. 4 Comments. 
If you’ve read my interviews with Jim Straw, you’ll know he’s quite a giving guy, answering questions very freely.
In case you missed the first two parts of the interview you can read them here:
Confessions of A Self Made Direct Marketing Multi-Millionaire. The Jim Straw Interview – Part 1
Confessions of A Self Made Direct Marketing Multi-Millionaire. The Jim Straw Interview – Part 2
Best,
Rezbi
www.directmarketingcourse.com
www.hotbuttoncopywriting.com
www.commonsensedirectmarketing.com
Filed under marketing by on Feb 8th, 2009. Comment.
I sent this out as an email to my list:
I’ll be interviewing Drayton Bird for my site at http://imsecretsrevealed.com/.
This interview is for YOU.
So, if you have anything in particular you’d like answered by Drayton, please send me an email at: rezbi@billiondollarcopywriting.com.
A little about Drayton :
The CIM named Drayton one of 50 individuals who’ve shaped today’s marketing. And David Ogilvy said he “knows more about direct marketing than anyone in the world.” But that doesn’t mean you can blame him for all the crap you get sent. He published his first novel, “Some rats run faster” when 27. Hardly anyone read this brilliant work as it had virtually no plot. 3 more books followed: “Commonsense Direct Marketing” – 5th edition out now; “Salesletters that sell” & “Marketing Insights and Outrages” He’s written over 1,000 columns for international magazines, spoken in 42 countries and worked with many leading brands, incl. Amex, BA, Deutsche Post, Ford, Microsoft, Nestle, P&G, Philips, The Royal Mail, Unilever and Visa. In 1977, he and two partners set up Trenear-Harvey, Bird & Watson, sold in l984 to O&M. As international Vice-Chairman and Creative Director, he helped O&M Direct become the world’s largest DM agency network, and was elected to the worldwide Ogilvy Group board. He now runs Drayton Bird Associates and has interests in 5 other firms. The ones he never visits do much better. This blog shows you what all that has done to his head.
Not only is he a living legend and direct marketing genius, he’s also one heck of a funny guy.
Don’t miss this opportunity – drop me an email with your question(s) at rezbi@billiondollarcopywriting.com.
Rezbi
PS You can find out more about Drayton at these sites:
http://www.draytonbird.com/
http://www.eadim.com/
If anyone else would like to take this opportunity to ask questions of one of the legends of Direct Marketing please feel free to email me… or just stick it into the comments section, below.
Filed under marketing by on Feb 13th, 2009. 3 Comments.
I just had a telephone conversation with a copywriting colleague and here’s how it went…more or less:
Me: Have you been watching Frank Kern’s videos?
Him: I bought it last night.
Me: You bought it?
Him: Yeah.
Me: Excellent. I was gonna suggest it.
Him: Because I’ve got several lists which I don’t earn bugger all from. I’ve actually got 3000 names on one list.
Me: I was actually going to suggest it…
Him: What’s that?
Me: Buying it. See I heard some of this before and I thought Frank was just deceiving people with his methods. I realise now you can deceive people if you choose to .
Him: Well, that’s like any persuasion method.
Me: Exactly. What I realised, after listening to it again, all the guy has done is basically he’s found out how to tap into human nature. That’s all he’s done: He’s found out how to appeal to the average person.
Him: Yeah.
Me: Or how to appeal to other people in his group, for want of a better word.
Him: He’s the small town boy done good. Made good.
Me: Yeah. And he appeals to that crowd, doesn’t he?
Him: Exactly.
Me: That’s no different from anything else… basically when he says something like ‘you’ve gotta have affinity with people’ that’s what all of us want, anyway. Don’t we?
Him: Yeah.
Me: So, there is actually nothing wrong with what he’s doing. It’s not a deception, but only if you want to deceive people. Basically, I think when I said I felt that with his stuff when you use his stuff it’s deceiving people… Now when I think about, it I think I was wrong.
Him: Oh, right. You’re gonna have to send an email to apologise.
Me: I will. In fact, I might even write an article and point him to it, saying that. I mean, I’m not an affiliate or anything, but it would be a heck of an article to write, wouldn’t it?
Him: Yeah. On twitter Jeff Walker said, or somewhere on twitter, I read he made $4 million yesterday.
Me: Who, Jeff Walker? Oh, Frank? Oh, yeah, I’m not surprised. That’s not surprising at all…
And the conversation deteriorated after that into idle banter.
Well, actually it didn’t… we began talking business.
But, you get the gist of the conversation.
Do I like Frank’s Mass Control?
Yup.
Am I an affiliate?
I wish.
If you want to get this, and I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t after that glowing endorsement, here’s the link:
http://www.masscontrolsite.com/
And, like I said, I’m not an affiliate so I don’t get paid a penny.
Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed
Filed under internet business by on Feb 17th, 2009. Comment.
“This is getting better and better. Rezbi’s interview with Drayton Bird was fantastic – one of the most
successful direct marketers on the planet giving you one to one tips on improving your copy, superb!” – Richard Singleton
1. In your experience, what proportion of the people who enter DM succeed in this business?
A. Depends on what you mean. I have no idea. I suspect no more than one in ten, as it seems so simple – if you don’t understand it!
But businesses owners who are spending their money and risking the roof over their heads may do better – probably because they only care about results; they have to succeed.
2. What do you think are the biggest mistakes people make which prevent them being successful?
• Over optimism.
• Lack of persistence.
• Lack of study
• Falling in love with their own products.
• Trying to be clever and “creative”
• Having a background in a firm, or with firms that don’t understand and appreciate direct marketing – especially a large one. They’ll always dilute your efforts and lean towards puffery.
3. In a nutshell, what are the basic steps to success in direct marketing?
• Find something you like – that interests you.
• Steep yourself in it
• Study your market deeply – possible customers, prospects, competition.
• Talk to those customers and prospects
• Become a customer of your competition.
• Try to meet people succeeding in similar areas and pick their brains
• Arrive at a proposition that beats what is available in some significant way
• Determine who it will appeal to and how you will reach them
• Consider what may go wrong. Hope for the best; plan for the worst.
• Measure everything.
• Establish how you can constantly improve.
• Pay remorseless attention to detail.
• Find good people
• Motivate and keep them
• Get rid of the ones that are no good – quickly but kindly
4. How important is copywriting to this business and, more importantly, how important is it for us as direct marketers to know at least something about copywriting?
Copywriting is no use if you want to manage a business. But without understanding it you can’t succeed. It is in a way the glue that sticks good DM together.
5. In principle, what type of products are good for the beginning direct marketer to aim to sell?
Ones with a big margin requiring little investment (ie anything on paper or online).
Don’t be a pioneer. Till you know better, copy and improve.
Find something that appeals to a clearly definable group you can reach easily. If you can reach them very cheaply (e. g. through piggy-backing someone else’s list) even better.
If you know you have a product in a category that already does well and a good list, you can accept the results, good or bad.
But wondering whether it was the best mailing in the world, but just to the wrong list is a horrible feeling. If a beginner is going to throw the towel in, it would probably be here.
6. What is the best type of customer to aim for in terms of finding a list?
One that loves what you sell, buys often and spends a lot, or failing that is likely to find what you sell interesting. E.g. to launch the Vale do Lobo property in the Algarve my letter went to Wealthy Antique Collectors. Rich golfers would maybe have done even better.
7. How do you measure success?
Profit over time – not response or immediate profit.
And – am I having fun?
8. What are the current spate of marketers, both online and off, doing wrong?
Most are clueless and would still look at you blankly at you if you suggested long copy.
They overclaim. They use HTML instead of text. They all sound the same. They have not studied.
9. What should they be doing to get it right?
Studying, practicing and copying. Watching what is doing well and asking: “Why?”
10. How would you recommend finding a good market to get into online and off?
Keep your eyes and ears open and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone / fire off a mail if you think there’s an opportunity for you.
Especially study what’s happening in the US.
Four questions from Richard Singleton:
1. When selling well known products online is it better to use short copy rather than long?
Long copy. Emails tend to be short – but link to long landing pages. You must give every reason why people should buy and overcome all objections. And repeat them all – perhaps in a slightly different way.
2. When selling products that a lot of other people are also selling, is it better to sell the benefits of the product or the benefits of buying from the shop selling the products or both?
Both. But when products have parity – just make a better offer.
3. Are there any simple tips for creating a usp?
Compare and study. Ask existing customers. They’ll tell you what it is – not what you’d like it to be.
4. Has Drayton worked on any other websites that we could perhaps have a look at for a few ideas.
Smartspace. Everest. Not 100% happy with either – the client is in control; not happy with drayton.bird.com – too busy to perfect it; not happy with EADIM, same reason
A specific question from Duncan MacIntyre
Duncan’s asked me not to reveal the website to anyone outside, so it’s here just for your benefit if you wish to answer his question (Site URL supplied)
We talk a little about his site on the recording but some of it was faded.
“I run a site about quality office chairs, the site aims to educate people about what’s important when selecting a chair and why it’s worth investing in a good chair if you spend a lot of time working in one.
It has product reviews on a wide range of different models and each one includes an affiliate link to an online store, meaning I earn a commission when someone buys via my link.
I’d like to ask what you feel is the best format for the reviews, I’ve deliberately taken an impartial, here are the reasons why this is a good product, here are some drawbacks approach.
My thinking on this is if it comes across with too strong a sales message readers are going to feel they are just being sold something and this will work against me.
What are your thoughts on the most effective way to present product reviews so that they convince readers it’s the best choice for them?”
Run split tests through google optimiser. Make the affiliate links more obvious. The site’s helpful, not a hard sell at all, so carry on being helpful – spoonfeed them the affiliate link.
Five questions from Mark Pocock:
1. Is Drayton doing anything different regarding positioning himself as the saviour for business owners now the economy is in a serious recession? Or is he doing the same as he’s always done?
Doing what I’ve always done. No silver bullets. Just commonsense advice anyone can profit from if they have the intelligence to apply it. Reading it isn’t enough. I am actually busier than ever before
2. What is the best way to find mail order companies? I have the UK List & Data Source Directory. This gives me the mailing lists available. But I need to find who are the companies renting the lists so I can approach them direct to sell my CW services? Any ideas?
Build your own list. Get on mailing lists and see who’s active – who’s sending you stuff.
3. If Drayton was a copywriter starting out today what are the top 3 things he’d do first to immediately generate paying clients?
Write to business owners and explain how I can help with examples of what I’ve done. Explain why it worked, so they know I think properly. Offer a no sell, no pay deal.
4. How did Drayton become so damn good at direct marketing? Studying the greats from decades ago?
I studied – and have never stopped. I study everything, not just direct marketing. This weekend I shall be at Yanik Silver’s seminar in Washington
5. Normally, I write long sales copy. However for multi page web sites I treat each page as a lead generating sales letter type page. Headline. Benefits. Call for action. Etc. How does Drayton go about writing multi page web sites?
Same as you. Each page must stand up on its own.
And, last but not least, the original questions I sent from Dan Tierney:
He’d like to know:
1. How you write online sales copy for expensive products versus inexpensive products and if your answer changes if the products are physical versus digital.
The more expensive the product the more you can (and must) write. I once wrote to a property developer: “You’re asking customers to spend no less than £85k. They’d buy a book on your properties if you wrote one.”
I wrote copy three times longer than his. Site visits increased by a factor of ten.
I just had a meeting with a client for whom we wrote a 6 page letter last September to get enquiries. It has helped pull in over £1 million in sales. One prospect spent over £100,000 over the phone after reading it.
2. What is your formula for writing online copy. Is it the AIDA formula like most others preach?
Pretty much. The customers don’t change. Why should the principles?
• News of a benefit plus incentive. (Attention)
• Immediately expand on this and be specific (Interest).
• Get excited, paint word pictures. (Desire)
• Proofs and testimonials. (Convince)
• Remind of the benefit – and what they miss if they don’t act.
• At least three calls for action.
Only one thing to beware of: e-mail subject lines are often very quirky as benefits may be stopped by spam
Internet Marketing Secrets Revealed
Filed under Drayton Bird, copywriting, marketing by on Feb 17th, 2009. 9 Comments.
