I’m fired up. And if you’ve been following me for a while, you know what happens when I get fired up. Yes, I get philosophical. Here’s the deal. Our marketing world, whether online or offline has a steep learning curve if you’re not a lifelong marketer who has spent years honing his craft and learning new things. Heck, even for those of us who have been marketing forever, things change. There was a time when I wasn’t online marketing in a big way, and that was just a few short years ago.

I remember when I came online looking to help my offline business. There were days my head wanted to explode from all of the possibilities. Wonderful possibilities and things to try but still a lot of information.

I remember Mike Dillard a few years ago starting his “What’s Working Now” newsletter. It had a picture of a woman at a desk piled with papers and her hair looked like it was on fire from burn out. That was how I felt. And honestly, there are days know where I am overwhelmed by all the things I can choose to do. I am an idea person. We’re overwhelm challenged somedays because this is so much fun we want to do it all at once! I digress.

Now you have to understand, as a lifelong entrepreneur I’m a risk taker and my tolerance is pretty high when it comes to business related items. I’m willing to give things a try to see if they will help improve my business. Sometimes things work and sometimes things don’t. I’ve built up a resilience over the years. Granted, some things that don’t work bum me out for a bit but for the most part I just role with it and don’t get too upset. My thought it that at least I was willing to give it a shot, whatever IT may have been at the time.

This post came about because I’ve been talking to a lot of folks lately who are completely overwhelmed with their businesses. They don’t know where to start, are in multiple programs, nothing is working and they’re spinning their wheels. I completely understand where you are because I’ve been there. And I’m going to tell you what to do right now to help that overworked brain of yours. You need to understand the reality of what you’ve gotten into.

Reality: the fastest way to the golden riches you desire is to invest in yourself and your training. Flat out. That is it. Yes, you are going to spend money to learn how to make money. And if you are not a born and bread entrepreneur you’re going to have to make some sacrifices in order to learn to become one.

Free methods that other talk about can work but they take time and time is money – so there is still a cost involved. I get that many people do not have start up money or start up costs for marketing. Unless you have a huge network that you can tap into my suggestion is that you save up money to market, sell stuff if you have to and work on the free methods as best you can with the expectation that it will be slow going. Paid advertising is the fastest way to grow your business. Flat out, that is the truth. And until you do enough of it, it will still be slow going.

Then I want you to do these things:

1) Get the blinders out. You Do NOT need another training program on Facebook that you already have three of or a WSO that gives you more graphics that you don’t do anything with. And you don’t need to try that ClickBank program that at the push of a button will make you millions once you put it on autopilot.

The reality is, there is no magic software program that will do it all for you and make you millions. There are programs that will make your life MUCH easier for sure but they all still require you to implement them. And most things require that you learn the basics of driving traffic and engaging with your subscribers on a regular basis. You have to learn your craft and hone it.

So, take the courses you have and do something with them before you buy the next.

I buy a lot of courses because I love to learn but I don’t buy one until I finish one if I can help it.

2) Work on your mindset. Listen to tapes, read books and surround yourself with others who are like-minded and at different learning levels. There are some great mastermind groups on Facebook these days. There are many knowledgable people willing to share what they know to help others. Seek them out.

3) Pick a teacher or two to start with. I’m all for learning from all the various teachers and believe in having more than one teacher. However, following 10 different people when you are first starting out and never taking action on what they teach isn’t helpful. Find someone you resonate with and really dig into what they are teaching on a daily basis. Then supplement with others who are helpful to you.

4) Pick one thing at a time to learn, get it set up and move to the next. If you want to learn social media and SEO and article marketing and blogging, the best thing is to start one at a time with them versus all at the same time. Have a plan and a list of what you want to do and then go for it – one at a time. You can’t eat and brush your teeth at the same time.

The focus of doing one thing at a time is almost like walking. You put one foot in front of the other to get where you are going and each step gets your there. Focus leads to success.

5) Get a mentor. I’m a broken record on this one. I think this is critical. I spend a lot of timing on the phone helping people who may just need 30 minutes to run something by me, that then changes their business or I spend hours on the phone with others as we craft out a longterm plan and then maintain accountability. Mentors help you get where you want to go faster than doing it by yourself. Mentors see things from the outside that you may not see and they hold you accountable to get it done. Our desire not to let someone down most times will motivate us. A good mentor will hit your over the head with a 2X4 when you need it. That is the sign of a good mentor to me. I want someone to call a spade a spade just like I do.

Now if something here resonates with you, please share this post and leave me a comment. You’ll never know when you’ll be able to help someone else. And of course, if you need help don’t hesitate to contact me.

All the best,