My wife has a deadline to hit for a gallery she supplies. So I said I’d take charge of the kids for the day while she worked.

Now I spend a lot of time with my children because it’s great fun. A friend of mine boasts how he’s never changed a nappy (diaper) in his life despite having three kids.

I’ve changed HUNDREDS of nappies – the contents of which have been as wide and varied in colour and ponginess as you could ever imagine. I did it because I wanted to – I’m a dad after all – and because it’s part of what life is about.

We could easily get a live-in nanny or au pair, but what’s the point of being a parent if you outsource it?

It’s all part of your life – experience.

Anyway so I took the day off ,and the offspring and I spent the day pratting about in the garden. First time I’ve ever seen a white spider actually so there you go.

And I kept getting HUGE flashes of inspiration, business-wise. I keep mentioning my ‘ideas book’ in this blog but today was quite extraordinary. I’ve come up with two ideas that WILL add $30,000 – $50,000 a year to my income and that can be put together in less than a day. Of course the sales pages, traffic driving and all the other stuff will take a couple of months to put together, but the point is, the idea arrived while I wasn’t working!

I’ll let you know when they come out and how much money they bring in of course but the crazy thing was how quickly it all came together in my head, and all because I took a step back from business for a day.

The feeling reminded me of years ago when I walked out of a job. The boss was a t*t and for once my calm and sense of hunour deserted me so I walked.

And walking out of a job as most people know involves euphoria to start with, then total FEAR sets in as we wonder how we can pay the bills.

Anyway this time the anger I felt seemed to push the fear away and I just didn’t get scared. I wasn’t married at the time and didn’t have a family to support so it wasn’t as worrying as it could have been.

But the fear stayed away.

And in their place I realised that I could THINK. I wasn’t totally knackered after a 40 hour week, or completely fixated on my pay cheque. So my brain seemed to rediscover what it was for.

And I started to have weird and wonderful ideas. Some compete rubbish of course, but other that I worked on and finally put into practise and actually made money from.

Which is how I got into home publishing (before computers though – this was all by mail and photocopier), and I’ve never looked back.

And I reckon this is why people talk about ‘taking the plunge’ when they think about quitting their 9-5 and working for themselves.

It IS a plunge, but once you free up your mind to do the job it was designed for and allow it to stop worrying about crap like paycheques, office politics and your employer’s problems, it’s a pretty wonderful business tool.

Someone Twittered (to see my tweets click the icon on the top right of this page) recently about booking a hotel room to get away and ‘brainstorm’ with yourself, and I think it’s a great idea.

Maybe consider booking 2 or 3 days off work when nobody else is at home and working on YOUR ideas – cos we all have them – and thinking about where you would ideally like to take an online business.

Your results will both terrify you and liberate you, but you’ll never be the same again. Once you see the possibilities your own mind has to offer, no job will ever satisfy you again.

Go do it

Cheers 🙂

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I went (ie was dragged) shopping today with my wife.

We went to Harrogate, which is a smallish but interesting  town in North Yorkshire. It’s also quite affluent and it’s fun to stop for some lunch in one of the posher bars and watch as offline businessmen try to outdo each other with cars and money.

Poor sods all have grey hair at 35 trying to keep ahead of the rest of the rats in the race.

Someone should tell them there’s an easier way.

Anyhow, so we stopped of for a bite to eat and a glass of the red stuff, and the waiter came over to our table, and that’s when he shot himself in the foot (sales-wise)

He took our drinks order then gave us the ‘lunch special’ menu which was a deal for two for around £20 (about $30).

Now when we go to this place we usually chill out and order something from the standard menu and maybe share a bottle of wine and our bill comes to at least twice that.

So why hit us with the ‘downsell’ immediately?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to bring the wine THEN ask if we’re eating?

If we weren’t he could try to persuade us to stay for lunch by offering the lower price menu deal.

I watched and I reckoned at least 50% of all the diners there were taking up the special deal.

Whoever had devised this plan was literally cutting his profits by HALF by offering the deal too soon.

I told my wife I was going to approach the owner and tell him that for a measly £1,000 I would explain to him how he could pretty much double his profits at lunchtimes.

She suggested I forget about work and have some more squid.

Which I did, but time after time I see examples in the ‘real world’ that prove to me that as internet marketers we are SO FAR ahead of offline business that it’s shocking.

People who call themselves ‘marketing professionals’ but have no idea what an upsell or downsell is, and offers presented at the wrong time to the wrong people, or worse of all not presented at all…..

Anyway – if you’re an internet marketer, which you probably are reading this. Gve yourself a huge pat on the back for being one of the truly smart people in business.

Although the thought did just occur to me that maybe they offered me the meal deal immediately is because I lool like I can’t afford anything else!

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I had a 2 hour phone call with a very successful marketer the other morning.

It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from the brainstorming session we had.

The conversion went from business ideas through tax issues, the latest IM launches, a bit of gossip and then back to business ideas.

But one of the main things I learned was why this particaulr bloke is a very successful marketer.

Sure, his attitude was spot-on, his knowledge of the business first rate and his creative ideas were right at the top of the game, but you want to know what blew me away most about the whole thing?

He was making notes.

Our chat was casual, interesting and funny, but he wasn’t leaving anything to chance. I was flattered of course that he considered my experience and opinion important enough to warrant taking these notes but then I realised that this was the secret to his success.

He knew that the whole success ‘thing’ is about learning, and although 80% of our conversation was, I’m sure, about stuff he already knew – he was ready just in case something sparked off an idea or a new angle to him.

And out of all the things that I knew he’d acheived – hundreds of thousands of dollars earned in a few days, HUGE contacts and JV partners, and respect within the industry, it was this little thing – the note-taking, that blew me away most.

Nice one!

I’m off to buy a notepad….

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This free report – which was very enlightening to write – is available via a link at the bottom of  this post.

 You’ll have to opt in to read it, but that’s only because we’re working on the lists at the moment. Too many duplicate emails going out so we’re pulling a few together. You won’t get bugged with loads of emails. No more than usual anyway 🙂

It actually came out of one of the lessons we were writing for The KickStart Course

No, the thing that pretty much blew my mind was how simple the whole business of earning serious money online is – honestly if you want to end up open mouthed and staring at a pdf on your PC then download and read this free report.

It shows how the actual systems we use are pretty simple and straightforward, and that the only thing missing – the magic ingredient – is getting up off your ass and doing it.

Grab a copy – Pulling Back The Curtain…

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