At any given time in a dealership, there are customers considering buying motorcycles, trying on clothes or waiting for their motorcycles to be serviced; service techs working on motorcycles; parts orders arriving via UPS; and a parade of salespeople walking through the showroom. There are a hundred things the dealer would like to pay attention to, and at the end of the day, he’s exhausted. He works hard every day, but he can’t find time for the things that are most important because he is too busy.

That’s the swirl. Perhaps you have it in your own business. So many different urgencies crop up that you aren’t able to work on what’s most important. It’s like one of those shooting galleries at the fair. Targets pop up and you have to shoot them quickly before they disappear again. At the carnival you’ve got concentrate on the gallery to score maximum points and get the biggest prize. It feels great when you hit all the targets, both at the carnival and in your business. When I get into the swirl in my own business, it actually feels good. It’s like I’m the head of an army that’s under attack. I’ve got projects and problems coming at me from all sides, and I’ve got to keep them all under control. While being in the swirl can feel invigorating, staying in the swirl is the wrong approach for a business owner.

Going back to my example about Harley-Davidson dealers, we taught them to create trackable goals for each department. Here is what we coached them to do:

Set your goals by first determining the total amount of money you want to make at the end of the year. Then assign a net profit contribution from each department. Based on that expectation, set goals for each month and what must be done within each department to achieve those goals. For instance, for motorcycle sales to generate the desired amount of profit, determine how many motorcycles the sales department needs to sell as a department. This will allow you to estimate the number of motorcycles each salesperson must sell each week to meet your goal.

Managing this way is like having a pause button for the swirl. You see that it exists, but it’s happening to everyone else, not you. That’s because your attention isn’t focused inside the swirl; instead you can see all the way through it, straight to your goal. You are able to keep your attention on what’s really important, driving your business toward your real business goals.

Info-marketers often get caught up in the swirl. Within the swirl we jump from one emergency to the next. Our goal is to keep everything running so we can quickly move on to the next crisis. We lose sight of where we are really trying to go. And it’s easy to find ourselves working and working and never seeming to make any progress.

It’s important to create a careful plan for the business you want to create. Outline the types of programs you want to offer, and create a timeline for when you’ll implement those programs. What will each of those programs contribute to your company’s profit? Who is responsible for getting them implemented? And for each person with responsibilities, what’s his or her schedule for getting the work done? These basic goal-setting and project management plans can mean the difference between getting caught in the swirl and reaching your business goals.

Just a few weeks ago, you probably made some resolutions. You may have set some goals for yourself to achieve. How much progress have you made? If you’ve made progress, it’s probably because you set out monthly, weekly and daily goals in addition to just making a resolution.

If you haven’t made progress, make an appointment with yourself—an appointment you refuse to break. Outline what you need to accomplish each month to make your goals a reality. Consider what has to be done each week. And then put each week’s goals into your calendar so you’ll take a break from the swirl to get the important projects done. In the same way you’d step away from your business to go to a doctor’s appointment, step away to improve the health of your business by focusing your attention on your most important goals.

While the swirl feels good in the moment, working on your goals gives you a great feeling that lasts. It’s actually a feeling of superiority. You can hold yourself above other business owners when you see them battling within the swirl.

What do you think? Are you caught in the swirl? Or do you have a great way of setting and achieving your goals? Visit the page Caught in the Swirl, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to leave me a comment. I read every comment and reply when appropriate.

Best wishes,

Robert Skrob

If you’d like to find out more about the archives, visit www.DKArchive.com. Here is an excerpt from Special Report #13 of the archives. I’m sure you’ll find it valuable and enlightening.

Let’s polish the crystal ball first for Product, i.e. “Deliverables,” then second for Media.

The best current approach to the information business has the product(s) integrated into “membership” or “coaching” or a business opportunity or franchise, an association, or some other ‘wrapper’ and continuous delivery, wrapped up into newsletter(s), tele-classes and/or tele-coaching, restricted internet archives, chat rooms and other online AND offline deliverables. This almost totally de-links price from component parts, and virtually shuts down piracy; you may be able to sell the CDs on eBay until we find you and sue you, but you can’t deliver the other parts. Further, this approach ends “transactions” and converts the business from being about “product(s)” to being ALL about a continuous relationship. In many cases, this is all presented as one level; if not first, second, on an organized ascension ladder.

The information business as a whole is evolving from generating its profits from hard products (books, tapes, courses, etc.) to seminars, coaching, services and licensing … from things easily duplicated, downloaded, uploaded and transferred from one media to another to things almost impossible to pirate or commoditize. At the same time, product has these four expanding roles:

1:   As ‘vital’ product utilized for promotion, not profit

2:   As deliverables integrated with seminars, coaching, etc.

3:   As front-end customer acquisition without concern about losses

4:   As back-end business run at negligible cost

#3 is the ‘classic’ use, and is largely unchanged. A speaker sells CDs from the stage; an ad, mailing or website sells them as well, but with understanding that it is harder and harder to command premium prices, and that such product is easily pirated and redistributed. Even here, a number of info-marketers are experimenting with switching that very first sale (for customer acquisition purposes) to tele-seminar(s), seminar, short-term coaching.

If you carefully think of the evolution you’ve observed with the ‘Dan Kennedy business,’ as recently as five years ago, most customers were acquired via the sale of some kind of product (in many cases, the Magnetic Marketing System), sold via speeches, direct-mail, placements in catalogs like Nightingale and SkyMall, and online, then those customers were sold membership when possible. Today, the same product sales are de-emphasized; Bill and I combined do less speaking all year than I was doing alone every 2 months, and the emphasis is on putting new customers first and directly into membership. And our membership is an example of #2.

You might think that the books now serve as Magnetic Marketing did; as the first product sold to then lead to membership, and you’d be a little right but a lot wrong. Mostly, the books serve only as the excuse for a massive promotion directly selling membership.

#1 is re-invigorated, good use for stand-alone products, such as books, e-books, single CDs, etc.: as giveaways, provided to others free or at low cost, for them to use as gifts or bonus. This gets you penetration into others’ lists. It relieves worry about piracy—it doesn’t matter. For me, products like The Ultimate Success book and Farting Cat book serve this purpose. Currently, there’s an audio CD with me interviewed about the topics in my 4 books by Kristi Frank from ‘The Apprentice’ I furnish to anyone who asks, free, and they can duplicate it and give it away as they wish.

#2 is mentioned above … products integrated into ‘manual labor’ deliverables and multi-faceted programs, so that it is not sold separately, and if pirated and sold, is missing as much as it is giving.

#4 is the classic catalog business, such as you find various products of mine in—best example is at dankennedyproducts.com. This is really only feasible in today’s conditions as an online business, not an offline business, back-ended to customers/members already in place or promoted by very inexpensive means such as e-mail. And protecting the products from theft and illegal duplication and sale is practically impossible.

However, for myriad of reasons, I believe, in general, that the business of selling standalone, individual products such as packages of audio CDs, manuals, tool kits like Magnetic Marketing, etc., is no longer a good business and probably will never be a good business again, in and of itself. The role of these kinds of products now must be one of the above four defined here.

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If you enjoyed this excerpt, you may want to review the entire Dan Kennedy archive. It is available for a limited time at www.DKArchive.com. Every one of the 72 issues is packed with advanced, specialized, experience-tested insights into what it takes to succeed within the info-marketing business. Visit www.DKArchive.com to reserve your copy.

“No, I don’t think so.” I was shopping for clothes at the mall. I’d recently gotten a new job, I was 21 years old and I knew few people in town.

“Where do you work?” He asked. I answered and asked him where he worked. He told me he owned his own business, and we struck up a conversation.

We’d never met, but within a minute or two, Steve and I had a good conversation going. About the time I was ready to return to my shopping, Steve told me that he often looks to work with sharp people in his business and asked if I would be open to new opportunities to make money. Flattered as I was, I said, “Sure,” and we set a date and time to get together.

At our meeting, about an hour into his presentation, Steve invited me to become an Amway distributor. About two weeks later, I learned that the episode in the mall was called “contacting,” and as a new distributor, I was now expected to do it.

I had no interest in walking up to complete strangers, striking up conversations and setting appointments so I could show them the Amway distributor business plan. But I wanted what this type of business promised. So, I learned to do it.

I purchased all the books and tapes on contacting, and studied them feverishly. I kept looking for “how-to” information. I wanted to know exactly what to do, step-by-step. What types of people should I stop and talk to? How do I start a conversation with a stranger? What do I say to make them comfortable enough to give me their number and look forward to my call?

I read hundreds of pages and listened to hours of tape, but I was never satisfied with the information I received. It always seemed vague. Primarily it said you have to “be bold” and “act with confidence.”

Steve took me on several contacting missions. We’d drive around town to grocery stores, book stores and shopping centers looking for people who were well dressed and looked like they were already successful. I’d start a conversation with each one, begin to build a relationship and then get his or her number to set an appointment to explain the Amway distributor business plan.

On days I tried to follow all the step-by-step advice I had learned from my books and tapes, I failed miserably. I got rejected and wasted a lot of time. So, I tried something different. With Steve’s coaching, I learned I had to internalize the step-by-step process, make it my own and act with boldness.

Although it goes against everything I’m comfortable with, I learned to be pretty good at it. I could get three or four numbers a day, so by the end of the week, I had 12 to 15 good prospects to call to setup appointments.

I figured out that all the how-to, step-by-step information wasn’t as important as I first thought. WhenI acted with extreme confidence,most people were happy to talk with me and genuinely wanted me to followup with them. They had no idea I was scared to death to approach them and even more terrified to pickup the phone and call them for an appointment.

In 2005, I had the opportunity to speak at Dan Kennedy’s Info-Marketing Summit and sell a program from the front of the room. I have never been so scared. It was audacious of me to presume I was qualified to offer a program. Yet, there I was at the front of the room. Dan Kennedy introduced me, and after my presentation, I learned I’d sold $330,000. 00 in that one-hour presentation!

Above all, I was bold. I spoke with supreme confidence. I carried myself like I had the ultimate secret and positively knew it was going to work. It didn’t matter that it was the biggest crowd I’d ever spoken in front of, that I was intimidated by the people in the room and that it was the first time I’d ever given my presentation.

Instead, I told myself I was bold, confident and excited to be there. I carried myself with supreme confidence—and I succeeded.

Confidence is the most difficult aspect to teach, and so I focus on it during my coaching calls with clients.

I’m always happy to provide step-by-step instructions. I love sharing what I know with you to help you grow your own business.

But at some point,successalways comes down to internalizing everything you’ve learned, mapping out your own strategy and boldly making it happen. Nothing will attract joint venture partners, content providers and customers like confidence.

By all means, seek out the available information and learn from other people’s mistakes. Then, when you have what’s available, act boldly. When you see you need to make a change of plans, do that boldly, too.

You’ll attract a lot more customers, and everything you do will be more successful when you internalize everything you’ve learned, make your own plan and act boldly rather than focus on someone else’s step-by-step process.

What do you think? Have you succeeded by acting boldly? Or has being bold gotten you into trouble? Visit the page The Only Step-By-Step Process, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to leave me a comment. I read every comment and reply when appropriate.

Best wishes,

Robert Skrob

My daughter, Samantha, has several classmates she has known for many years. They went to elementary and middle school together. But she doesn’t talk to them. Confused, I asked her why.

She told me, “They are ‘populars,’ and I’m not. I hang out with the band.” Definitions can be interesting. According to high school social vernacular, “populars” doesn’t mean these students are well known or well liked; it means they are full of themselves. Samantha is looking for people who are more accepting of each other, and that’s the band kids.

I don’t like this because I want everyone to like my daughter, and I want her to be the most popular kid in the school. More important, I don’t want her to limit her own choices and experiences by predetermining she’s going to exclude people based on which group they are in. Yet I do the same thing.

In the late 1990s, I was well known in the association world. (The association world is made up of the people who run associations.) After I learned about info-marketing, I thought to myself, “Association people don’t get it. I’m going to start hanging out in the marketing world, or more specifically, the Dan Kennedy world. I’m going to be part of planet Dan.” I shut myself out of a lot of experiences I could have had because of a false feeling of superiority.

Because we are so busy, we have to assign people to categories. In the end, all of the categories are simply subcategories of these two: important and not important.

Certain people endup in the important: spouse, kids, boss, clients, Steve Jobs. Others end up in the not important and can be ignored: pestering salesperson, the loser who keeps hanging around me at the office and Kim Kardashian. Our customers do the same thing; they are making these judgments about us!

The good news? In business we get to create our own identity. In fact, it’s essential to establish our identity.

This is why it’s so important for you and me to become big characters. That is how we can differentiate ourselves as someone important, someone to be listened to.

You establish yourself as someone important by doing important things—publishing a newsletter, providing knowledge, producing a white paper or a special report, writing a book, becoming the chief spokesperson for your business.

In other words, become a big character.

Be the master of your public image, command attention and never bore your audience of customers and potential customers.

I tried to teach this lesson to my daughter. I told her she can be a “popular” anytime she wants; all she has to do is behave like the populars. But that feels phony to her.

I understand. It doesn’t come naturally to me either. I was taught to let my actions speak for themselves. Yet if you do that, it’s too easy for your prospective customers to sort you into one of the “not important” categories.

You don’t have to be phony. Everything you do should reflect your personality and refer to your own successes. “But what if I don’t have any successes?” you ask. First of all, I doubt that’s entirely true, and second, go create them!Demonstrate your knowledge and ask someone for the opportunity to turn what you know into a success demonstration. This will give stories you can talk about.

These stories will enable you to be true to yourself, to prevent you from being phony. And they will demonstrate to your audience that you are important.

You and I must refuse to accept the labels our markets put on us. We frequently have to “blowup” those labels by being different and commanding attention.

If you’ve been all about Topic X for the last two years, maybe it’s time to start talking about Topic Y. Be unexpected, entertaining and different.

You must forge a new identityin your market. Always be yourself (but make it interesting), keep it unique and make it bold. You’ll not only transcend the high school labels, but within your market, you’ll also transcend Kim Kardashian.

What do you think? Have you created a new identity in your market this year? Or do you need to forge a new identity in the next year? Visit the page What Are You Known For?, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to leave me a comment. I read every comment and reply when appropriate.

Best wishes,

Robert Skrob

I’ll think, “I’ve been lying here 15 minutes, and now I’ve only got 45 minutes until it’s time to getup. Forty-five minutes isn’t worth falling asleep for; I’ll move my alarm to 5:15 a. m. to give myself a full hour. ”

Then when 5:15 a. m. comes, I’ll rationalize that because I had trouble sleeping, I may as well get up at 6 a. m. to make sure I’m not too sleepy later in the day. Then when 6 a. m. comes, I’ll talk myself into some other reason to stay in bed. That morning self-talk is a tricky thing.

I have found it’s especially tricky when I allow myself to get bogged down in and overwhelmed with too many different projects. I operate several businesses simultaneously. Each one has ongoing responsibilities. While each has a team of people dedicated to moving it forward, it’s my responsibility to be the innovator, the one in charge of new idea development. Plus, I have up to three private clients. Each of those clients has deadlines and goals where projects have to be completed. It’s easy for me to feel overwhelmed with all the deadlines and commitments.

My favorite way of dealing with overwhelm is to stay in bed. To avoid it. To stay away from my desk so I can steer clear of that feeling of pressure and even inadequacy for not getting all the work done, for not being able to keep up.

I believe this is the reason for the so-called “shiny object syndrome. ” You know it as the decision most info-marketers make to switch from one thing to another, constantly changing direction before anything gets done.

Most gurus think it’s because they’ve seen something else that’s gotten them excited, so they run toward the next new thing. I believe the syndrome is caused because people start to feel frustrated and self-conscious when they haven’t gotten a project completed as quickly as they had hoped. It’s easier to blame the project and call it a bad idea. They run to the next new thing that’ll make them excited rather than frustrated. People avoid pain. If a project gives them pain because it’s incomplete or taking longer than they had hoped, then they want to run away from it. It’s a classic avoidance mechanism.

I understand. A lot of projects take me longer than I expect. In fact, most do.

In the last week, I’ve had five people make comments to meabout how impressed they are with the quantity of work I get done. Two were clients, two were vendors and the other was an employee. It’s funny. All I see are the deadlines I miss, not what I accomplish. It doesn’t seem to me that much is getting done because I see the long list of goals and projects I want to complete. And for me, it’s often overwhelming.

This morning I wokeup at 4:15 a. m. and was out of bed and at my desk by 4:30. (And by desk I mean the big leather chair in front of my desk, where I sit with a blanket, prop up my feet and work on my laptop. )

Do you want to know what makes the big difference between jumping out of bed and running to face my day versus avoiding it? It’s really two things, the “why” and a primary goal for making the “why” come true.

Right now I’m working on a completely new marketing funnel for one of my businesses. It’s a new marketing process in a media I’ve done before but never with this much diligence. And you know what? It’s challenging for me.

For the last two months, although I set aside time for it, I have allowed myself to avoid the work. Either by sleeping in or by letting other priorities to slip ahead, I haven’t spent the necessary time to get it done.

Last week I broke the cycle and spent about 16 hours on the project. But I need to invest about 40 more to get it completed.

It’s hard work. It requires concentration and thinking and it’s outside my comfort zone, so popping into my head every couple of hours is that little birdie asking, “Is this really going to work, or will this all be wasted time?”

The last few weeks have been easier to get out of bed and focus. The reason is, for the first time I outlined why I’m building this project. My daughter is making straight A’s in high school, and big-time college tuition is right around the corner. Plus, I want to prove to myself and the world that I really can succeed with one of these ambitious projects. I wrote down these “whys” for myself to see, along with a bunch of others. Now I review themseveral times a day. I keep them in front of me—along with the outline of the one way all these “whys” will happen—the completion of this ambitious project.

Now I have reasons to get excited. Things that make me want to get to work early. Today, when I woke up at 4:15 a. m. , I said, perfect, this gives me more time to work today. My “whys” are keeping me motivated toward my goal so the frustrations and the little negative voices don’t slow me down.

Along with my newfound motivation, I have clarity because I’ve chosen a vehicle that’s capable of making those whys happen. Although I have several client deadlines this week, along with a two-day trip out of town, my primary project still motivates me. Fulfilling those commitments allows me to focus on the project that will make my “whys” come true.

When you feel frustrated, try this: 1. Outline the reasons you want to build the business in the first place, your reasons why; and 2. Identify the way you are going to make those things happen.

There will still be frustration, and you’ll still face set-backs. However, when you are doggedly determined to fulfill one primary goal and you keep your mind focused on what life will be like when you accomplish that goal, there is nothing you can’t overcome.

What do you think? Do you negotiate with yourself when your alarm goes off? Or do you have a better way of motivating yourself? Visit the page When It’s Tough to Get Out of Bed, and scroll down to the bottom of the page to leave me a comment. I read every comment and reply when appropriate.