Podcasts by The Three Month Vacation Podcast
Sean D'Souza made two vows when he started up Psychotactics back in 2002. The first was that he'd always get paid in advance and the second was that work wouldn't control his life. He decided to take three months off every year. But how do you take three months off, without affecting your business and profits? Do you buy into the myth of "outsourcing everything and working just a few hours a week?" Not really. Instead, you structure your business in a way that enables you to work hard and then take three months off every single year. And Sean walks his talk. Since 2004, he's taken three months off every year (except in 2005, when there was a medical emergency). This podcast isn't about the easy life. It's not some magic trick about working less. Instead with this podcast you learn how to really enjoy your work, enjoy your vacation time and yes, get paid in advance.
Further podcasts by Sean D'Souza
Podcast on the topic Marketing
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How to get clients to go from "NO" to "YES" (And why the right mindset is crucial) from 2023-12-08T23:00
Usually a "NO" feels like a door slammed in your face.
However, in many cases, a "NO" isn't a forever thing. If you look at "NO" differently, there's a good chance you'll...
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The "Blindingly Obvious Reason" That Drives Success in Almost Any Sphere from 2023-12-02T00:00
You'd think that success parameters are everywhere—and they are.
Yet, some of them are so obvious that we completely miss them. In order to turn things around and get peo...
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The Myth of Poor Memory (And How to Overcome It Instantly) from 2023-11-25T00:00
Have you heard yourself saying: I'm not good with names!
Almost everyone you run into is likely to say something similar. Is it because we're bad with names and have terrible memories?
How to create an intensely curious first line for your article from 2023-11-10T23:00
The first line is what pulls us into an article.
Yet we end up writing a really boring first line. What's worse is that you could use the power of story to create a...
Overwhelmed with Too Much to Learn? How To Solve The Problem Once and For All from 2023-10-27T23:00
If we went back in time, we'd all feel a little less stressed out.
We weren't being pounded with endless information all the time. There weren't a million courses, worksh...
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Why a "Lack of Memory" Causes You to be Less Talented in Life from 2023-10-20T23:00
I was chatting with a client, and he told me how he needs to improve his drawing. "I always draw stick figures", he said to me, "and somehow, I need to improve these drawings."
Th...
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The Results Paradox: Why We Have to Keep Searching for New Clients from 2023-10-14T00:00
The biggest underlying success factor of a business is repeat clients.
Yet time and time again, we have to keep looking for new clients. This sorry situation is often because we are seduc...
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The Not So Obvious Angles For Succeeding In Life from 2023-10-09T23:00
Do you remember the story of the Three Kings in the Bible? You might have heard that they didn't come empty-handed.
That's because they understood one of the core principles of ...
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Why "Dribbling" is better than "Practice, Practice, Practice" from 2023-09-29T23:00
We're told we need to practice if we want to get better. However, most of the times when we're practicing, we're quite bored.
Instead, "play" is far superior in every way. Listen
How to Stay on Track With Your Goals (Without Depending on Willpower): Guest appearance by Keira Menon from 2023-09-23T00:00
Last week we heard about willpower and how ineffective it can be when we most need it.
Today, we have guest—the first ever—Keira Menon. She not only gives you her version of willpower, b...
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Why Willpower is Weak (And How Numbers Help You Stay on Track Instead) from 2023-09-16T00:00
We're told time and time again that what we need is better willpower?
Yet, science and endless studies have shown willpower to be ineffective. If you're tired, for example, you'll d...
Re-run 06 The Paradox of Motivation and Burnout (And Where To Draw the Line) from 2023-09-09T00:00
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Why writing down what delights you can help reduce anxiety and stress from 2023-07-29T00:00
No one needs to tell you how stress can take its toll.
Yet there seems no easy way to ramp down the stress factor. If anything, we seem to be more stressed than ever before. The news clos...
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How to create a stunningly good opening story for Zoom (without having to write it yourself) from 2023-07-22T00:00
One of the biggest problems when starting up a speech is that you have to find something that captures the attention of the audience. Instead, what we often get is a round of introductions, blah...
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How to re-oxygenate sales instantly (with little or no effort at all). from 2023-07-15T00:00
When we want to increase our sales, we search for new methods. However, that search is often quite unnecessary. What's needed instead is a tiny bit of common sense.
With little or...
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Stories from the South of Spain from 2023-07-08T00:00
After three months of staying put in New Zealand, we finally made a long trip.
Long in terms of distance, as well as duration. For the past three years, most of our travel has been within...
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How I used Chat GPT (and YouTube) to create a flawless transcript from 2023-07-01T00:00
Often enough your client may need a transcript for a long video or workshop.
Not everyone needs or wants a transcript, and it does cost a lot to produce transcripts for everything. ...
Balanced Feedback: Why People Want Endless Amounts of it from 2023-06-23T12:00
All of us cringe at the thought of getting feedback. Yet, we all need feedback to improve.
There are formulas for feedback but they don't work as well as they should. However, this method...
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How To Write a Non-Icky Blurb When Describing Your Achievements from 2023-06-16T12:00
There are times when you need to introduce yourself, such as for a personal website, social media profile, or professional bio. That's where you and I often get stuck.
We were tol...
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Why We Struggle With Writing Well (And How Your Brain is Trying to Drive You Crazy) from 2023-06-10T00:00
When we start writing, we know we're hopeless. However, in time, we all get to the stage where we're average.
What does it take to become outstanding and then an absolute maestro ...
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Why Business Philosophy Creates a Uniqueness Factor (Even When Clients Don't Know You At All) from 2023-06-03T00:00
What if you ran into clients that have never heard of you?
And what if they've never heard of your products or services? Would they still buy from you?
It...
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How to Systematically Generate a Uniqueness (Even If You've Struggled With It Before) from 2023-05-27T00:00
It's more than likely that you've tried to create uniqueness before. Yet, it seems a bit of a pain, because it sounds so trite.
Well, how about we look at uniqueness from a "const...
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Why Clients Behave "Irrationally" and Buy Your Products (Even When They Already Have Enough). from 2023-05-20T00:00
When a client buys a product, what goes through their mind?
Often you'll notice they have a similar product, so why do they buy again?
There are four reasons...
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The Myth of The Oversaturated Market—And Why Even AI Doesn't Matter from 2023-05-13T00:00
AI has sent a chill down the spines of many of those who create content for a living.
—Won't so much content saturate the market?
—And why would a client choose your work when...
Rerun 6: Three Unusually Zany Tips To Change Your Mindset (And Behaviour) from 2023-05-05T23:00
Rerun 6: Three Unusually Zany Tips To Change Your Mindset (And Behaviour)
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Rerun 5: Why List Building Fails (And How To Avoid The Almost Obvious Failure) from 2023-04-28T23:00
Rerun 4: How To Restart A Stalled Project: The Middle Of The Project Method from 2023-04-21T23:00
Rerun 4: How To Restart A Stalled Project: The Middle Of The Project Method
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Rerun 3 Why You Should Not Write Like An Author When Writing Articles from 2023-04-14T23:00
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Rerun 2: How To Turn An Average Elevator Pitch Into One That Gets Consistent Attention from 2023-04-07T23:00
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Rerun 1: How To Get Clients When You Are Starting Up (With A Humble Checklist) from 2023-03-31T23:00
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Why Does Learning Seem to Take Forever? The Surprising Reasons Behind Slow Learning from 2023-03-24T23:00
If you're a teacher, you might be surprised at times at why people seem to learn so slowly. You may wonder if it's because of your method of teaching or if it is the material.
The reason...
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Why "A Walk in the Forest" Reinvigorates Our Busy, Stressful Lives from 2023-03-17T23:00
We all know the little things that recharge our batteries.
For most of us, a walk in a real forest would calm us down and give us that much needed energy. Yet, as we go ...
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Will AI and ChatGPT replace you as a writer? from 2023-03-10T23:00
If you haven't already heard the news on the street, you soon will. AI is going to take away all our jobs as writers.
Anyone can create a course in minutes, writ...
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How to write non-boring metaphors in your articles (while using rather boring situations ) from 2023-03-03T23:00
Even if you have a workable metaphor, how do you use the metaphor in your article?
The key is to go backwards and find the one word or one idea that you want to ...
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How to write non-boring metaphors (while using rather boring situations) from 2023-02-24T23:00
You'd think you would need to have some scintillating stories to write a metaphor.
Or worse still, you'd believe it's a skill that only some people have and can never be ...
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Why the smallest offline meet-up can be more beneficial than zoom or email from 2023-02-17T23:00
The myth that is perpetuated is that you just need to sit at your computer and get an endless number of clients.
The reality is the face-to-face connection is far superior.
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The Subtle Power of Entertainment (And Why It Keeps Clients Engaged With Your Content) from 2023-02-10T23:00
Why are some books, videos and audio so much "better" than others?
Or rather, why do we consider so many to be dry and boring?
The style of delivery matters, of cou...
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Bumpity-Bump Travel Stories from 2023-02-03T23:00
Sometimes, all it takes is for us to sit in a car, and all hell breaks loose.
Here are a few stories of how things went a bit "off-the-road" during our travels.
Di...
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How Planning Gets Quickly Derailed (When You Don't Have a Stop-Doing List) from 2023-01-27T23:00
At the start of the year, it's almost natural to want to wipe the slate clean and start doing something new. We create goals, set deadlines and hope like crazy that things will work out well. Listen
Rerun 6: Chaotic Week? How To Use The Goldilocks Method To Get Things Back On Track from 2023-01-20T23:00
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Rerun 4: The Simple Logic of Email Frequency (And How It Helps Sustain A Business) from 2023-01-06T23:00
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Rerun 2: Why being "late to the party" is not a crisis for your business from 2022-12-23T23:00
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Why Would They Choose Me? Getting Past A Mental Block from 2022-12-02T23:00
No matter what industry you're in, there's already competition.
This isn't just some random competition, but rather people who are better established than you. They've worked with your cl...
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How "pros" practice differently than you (and therefore get superior results) from 2022-11-25T23:00
Practice, practice, practice! Isn't that how you get better?
Well, yes, but the problem with that mantra is that few of us have the time to get to schedule in as much pra...
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How to Become Fluent at Almost Any Skill in a Matter of Weeks (And What Stops Us From Being Fluent) from 2022-11-18T23:00
We all seem to know that fluency takes time—lots and lots of it. It also takes a lot of effort and learning. We're told that to be fluent, we have to put in thousands of hours of work.
Sales Pages: How to avoid procrastinating and fix three core elements- Part 2 from 2022-11-11T23:00
In the first part of this podcast, we noticed that there's a logic to choosing what elements to fix on the sales page. We're looking at attraction, conversion and risk. And at the same time we'r...
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Sales Pages: How to avoid procrastinating and fix three core elements- Part 1 from 2022-11-04T23:00
When creating sales pages—or even when fixing them, you have a long list of elements to tackle.
So many in fact, that you may just put off the fix for a few weeks, which ends up taking a ...
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How to get in a state of play—and not be stressed all the time from 2022-10-28T23:00
We know how it feels to be in a state of flow. Our work seems so effortless. However, we almost seem to be rushing to meet a deadline, and work seems—well—just like work.
We've always tho...
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Why Is Storytelling So Important in Marketing? from 2022-10-21T23:00
We all know storytelling is a crucial skill to have as a business owner and also for you as a person. When we tell stories at the dinner table, everyone seems to listen.
The same ...
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Why We Stall—And How To Pull Out of the Mess from 2022-10-14T23:00
No matter how good things are, there's a moment when things just don't go your way. That's when you've entered stall mode.
It doesn't matter how skilled or experienced you happen t...
Why I keep writing articles (despite having written for 22 years). from 2022-09-17T00:00:44
Isn’t it better to recycle instead of writing all the time?
A tiny bit of recycling may not be out of place, but there’s a good reason why we should keep writing new mate...
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The 5000bc story (Part 2): When the diversion turned out to be better than the destination from 2022-09-10T00:00:49
You know how you're told to set a goal and then benchmark your success based on that goal?
Well, that's what we set out to do with our membership site at 5000bc. However,...
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The 5000bc story (Part 1): The ups and downs from 2022-09-03T00:00:11
What does it take to get a membership site to keep going?
We go on a wild journey where the entire site was wiped out and how it bounced back again. And how nearly 20 yea...
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Why kids seem to learn faster than adults (Part 2) from 2022-08-27T00:00:08
Kids have a superpower. When they're very young, they don't know Monday from Sunday. And it's this lack of knowledge that also gives them an upper hand when they're learning. Unlike adults who a...
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Why Sales Pages Are Annoyingly Difficult To Write.. from 2022-08-14T02:00:18
One of the toughest tasks a business owner can have is when it's time to write a sales page.
You know that it's unlikely your product or service will sell unless you have...
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Why Sales Pages Are Annoyingly Difficult To Write.. from 2022-08-14T02:00:18
One of the toughest tasks a business owner can have is when it's time to write a sales page.
You know that it's unlikely your product or service will sell unless you have...
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Why some people are always overwhelmed (and others aren’t) from 2022-08-05T12:00:58
Can You Stop Feeling Overwhelmed?
Almost all of us have varying levels of stress. Yet some of us are always in a fog, always struggling. Is there a fix? And is it a non-o...
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Audience Building: Three compelling concepts from David duChemin from 2022-07-30T00:00:18
When it comes to audience building, we tend to fall for the hype.
It's all about "getting a thousand clients" or "making thousands of dollars". If you've already been dow...
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The counterintuitive—yet simple strategy—to completing courses and books from 2022-07-23T00:00:12
When we start on a course, we all expect we'll get to the end.
Yet time after time, we seem to abandon the course quite early. Part of the reason may be that the co...
Re-Run 6 Why Writing Is So Exhausting (And How You Can Make It Less Of A Chore) from 2022-07-08T12:00:43
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Re-Run 05 Why Restricting The Numbers Of Sales Increased Profits (And Will Give You More Downtime) from 2022-07-01T12:00:59
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Rerun 4: The Real Goal Of Productivity (And How it Helps You Waste More Time) from 2022-06-25T00:00:56
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How To Sidestep Chaos (Even When High Conflict Is Tearing Us Apart) from 2022-06-11T01:00:49
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The Simple Logic of Email Frequency (And How it Helps Sustain a Business) from 2022-05-30T06:00:40
If you're a big company like Amazon, YouTube and Apple, should you bother to send out e-mail newsletters?
Can't you just spend loads of money on publicity and advertising...
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Storytelling: Why Fairy Tale Endings Are Unnecessary for Article Writing from 2022-05-21T00:01:52
How do most of our stories end?
Usually, it's a fairy tale ending. Or maybe it ends in chaos, sadness or even disaster. We believe that an ending is crucial for any story...
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Storytelling: Why "relevance" is the key to editing a story from 2022-05-13T12:00:29
It's not unusual to approach an edit with a machete. We see a mass of words and want to hack through them to make the story more interesting. The problem is, that we don't know what to throw awa...
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Storytelling: Why starting with the "stuck point" creates intense stories from 2022-05-07T00:00:59
We often believe that stories have a sequence.
First, this happens, then that happens and then something else shows up. And while that belief is generally true, the heart of the story is ...
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Why Storytelling Needs Thumpity-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump from 2022-04-30T00:00:55
When you hear someone tell you about their vacation, you try to be interested. All that exotic food, that astounding accommodation—it's all boring.
Yet there's a reason why it's boring. Listen
How to create a small 2-minute sales pitch from 2022-04-23T00:00:27
When people ask what we do, we are often unsure what to reply.
Sometimes we may have a script that we've practiced over and over again. Yet we don't often have success wi...
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The Charlie Brown Moment: Why We Choke Under Pressure from 2022-04-08T12:00:35
Ever wonder what Writer's Block happens to be?
It's a form of choking under pressure. When we're called upon to speak, to write, or to do something under pressure, we alm...
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Sandwiching: How to create a perfect crescendo for your story using a "sandwich" from 2022-04-01T11:00:40
The hardest part of writing is usually the first few lines. However, the ending can also be quite a vexing problem.
Unless of course, you use a simple method called "sandwiching"....
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Storytelling: How to decide which facts to keep and which ones to drop from 2022-03-25T23:00:13
Why do you have a bloated story?
It's often because there are way too many facts in the information you've put down on paper. Even if we know we have too many facts and f...
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The Eternal Sales Page Dilemma-How to choose the precise headline to get clients interested from 2022-03-18T23:00:52
When we sit down to write a sales page, we run into a problem almost instantly. We know that the client is usually looking to solve one problem, but which problem should we choose?
How do...
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Why being "late to the party" is not a crisis for your business from 2022-03-11T23:00:58
When we sit down to write an article or create an information product, we often have a sinking feeling.
We look around and find that it's "all been done before".
T...
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How a simple "five point questionnaire" helped me write my sales page (and saved me a ton of time as well). from 2022-03-04T23:00:13
As I sat down to write a sales page for a course, I wasn't stuck.
However, my progress was so slow that it was driving me crazy. A sales page consists of well over a dozen elements.
<... Listen
How to get unstuck bit by bit (and why speeding it up doesn't usually work) from 2022-02-18T23:00:42
Usually when we're stuck, we want to get out of the mess in a big hurry. As a result, we end up digging a bigger hole for ourselves.
How do you—that's you and I—systematically get...
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Free Content Vs Paid Content: Will Clients Buy If You Give Away A Lot Of Free Stuff? from 2022-02-12T16:00:24
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Why Do Clients Leave Your Community from 2022-02-04T11:00:43
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Three Ordinary Aspects of Writing (That We Forget To Implement Consistently) Re-Reun 05 from 2022-01-28T11:00:37
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How to audit your information product in four systematic steps Re-Run 03 from 2022-01-14T23:00
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The Dual Boomerang System Of Learning (That Helps Me Get To The Finish Line) Re-Run 02 from 2022-01-07T23:00
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How to get version 1 of The Brain Audit from 2021-12-24T23:00
This week there is a promotion for The Brain Audit version 3.2, but there’s a place where it all began. And you can compare the progress over time.
Here is the link:
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Why You Should Pay Attention To Giving (And Why Receiving Is Just as important) from 2021-12-17T23:00
Is giving better than receiving? Maybe not. If you've tried to give something to someone and they won't accept it, you know exactly how it feels. We're not talking about something creepy here. T...
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How random pieces of advice from friends and bosses help me keep my focus from 2021-12-10T23:00
A random piece of advice isn't supposed to stay with you for years, and yet it does. In this episode we zig and zag into India (where I lived for a chunky part of my life) and then into New Zeal...
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Why we struggle to acquire skills (and how the mindset of the teacher is the root cause) from 2021-12-03T23:00
Let's say you're about to learn a new skill—and you don't.
You finish the course and you're still not quite anywhere as good as you hoped.
Is that your fault? Or the teache...
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Scaring Clients Away From Your Sales Page? from 2021-11-26T23:00
Why a simple fix can bring them back.
Most of us have products and services that solve many problems. The natural, and the seemingly logical way we go about talking about the product or s...
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Why "write every day" is seriously misunderstood (and why it prevents us from writing every day) from 2021-11-19T23:00
Write every day. Write every day. Write every day.
We seem to hear a lot of that advice when we start off in writing. Yet, are we likely to be misunderstanding what the r...
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How To Get Clients Comfortable On Zoom from 2021-11-12T23:00
Why would clients be uncomfortable on Zoom?
They're your clients after all. Yet, time and time again we notice a reluctance on the part of the client.
...
The Paradox of Motivation and Burnout (And Where To Draw the Line) from 2021-11-05T23:00
Some days, you can't get yourself motivated. Yet on other days, you're working so hard that you're frying up much too quickly.
How do you keep a balance between getting yourself m...
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Chaotic Week? How To Use The Goldilocks Method To Get Things Back On Track from 2021-10-29T23:00
Some days seem to start not on Monday, but Wednesday.
You fully intended to get your planning going, but something got in the way and it looks like the week is slipping a...
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The Real Goal of Productivity (And How it Helps You Waste More Time) from 2021-10-22T23:00
Most people tend to tell you to be more productive.
Sales need to be doubled, you somehow aren't satisfied with the client numbers, and need a lot more. In short, it's this endless race t...
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Why restricting the numbers of sales increased profits (and gave us more downtime) from 2021-10-15T23:00
It seems illogical to sell just 25 copies of a product when the product is just digital.
Isn...
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Why do clients sign up? Understanding the core motivations that attracts clients. from 2021-10-08T23:00
Have you ever wondered why people keep buying recipe books?
Your grandma had a dozen books, so did your parents, and now, even if you're not such a good cook, you're like...
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How the doorway principle lets you get started (even when you're not known in your industry) from 2021-10-01T23:00
Most of us believe we have to start a business. Hence, we get all fancy with business cards and websites. We talk about how we solve problems. And then—then we hear nothing. Clients should be ru...
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How to get re-started (when you've been blown off course) from 2021-09-25T00:00
Everybody starts off with a plan, but shortly after that plan turns to custard. We should be able to realign ourselves and restart, but restarting seems to be extremely difficult.
Why High Conflict is Tearing Us Apart (And How To Sidestep the Chaos) from 2021-09-18T00:00
When I was 13 years old, my parents got involved in a court battle. I was past 40 when the issue was finally resolved. We don't see ourselves wanting to engage in high conflict.
Yet...
How To Create Bonuses Out Of Thin Air (And Still Make Them Extremely Desirable): Part 2 from 2021-09-11T00:00
The toughest part about creating bonuses is how time-consuming they can be, especially when you want to make them desirable.
Yet there is a method of creating extremely desirable bonuses ...
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How To Create Bonuses For Your Products Or Services: Part 1 from 2021-09-04T00:00
It may sound odd, but the bonus is often the tipping point for a client to buy your product or service.
And yet, by the time we are done with creating the product or serv...
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Why You Should Never Trust A Silent Customer from 2021-08-28T00:00
We tend to think all is well with the world when no one complains.
Yet, most customers rarely complain. Instead, they just walk out of the door, without saying a word.
A si...
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Why We Do What We Do Ay Psychotactics: Origin Stories from 2021-08-21T00:00
What was the trigger for the Three-Month Vacation?
Why do we have workshops at random locations?
This is it—the second part in the two-part series o...
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Why We Do What We Do Ay Psychotactics: Origin Stories from 2021-08-21T00:00
What was the trigger for the Three-Month Vacation?
Why do we have workshops at random locations?
This is it—the second part in the two-part series o...
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Why We Do What We Do At Psychotactics: Origin Story Series from 2021-08-14T00:00
- How did the gold star show up in Psychotactics courses?
- How did we start sending chocolate across the world?
Here is a two-part series on how all of these traditions...
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Why We Do What We Do At Psychotactics: Origin Story Series from 2021-08-14T00:00
- How did the gold star show up in Psychotactics courses?
- How did we start sending chocolate across the world?
Here is a two-part series on how all of these traditions...
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What I Learned From Children (And How It Lowered My Stress Levels) from 2021-08-07T00:00
It's rare that we don't learn lessons from a child.
Even so, I think we don't always pay closer attention to what they're saying. My two nieces have taught me a lot.
... Listen
How To Avoid High Conflict—Even When You Don't Agree WIth The Idea from 2021-07-31T00:00
Are you pro or anti-vaccine? Are you pro this or anti-that?
We seem to be pushed into one camp or the other and we end up getting ourselves in a tight corner. Is there a way to be part of...
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How To Get Your Foot In The Door (With A Humble Checklist) from 2021-07-24T00:00
When starting up, it's almost impossible to get clients.
Yet, there's a method that's almost fail-proof and gets the client interested in you, right away. What's more, th...
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The "Coats of Paint" system to break out of the curse of perfection from 2021-07-17T00:00
The biggest problem with perfection is we feel we have to keep to the job until it's done. As logical as the idea sounds, it's always—yes, always—counterproductive. Instead, there's a method tha...
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Why Happiness Eludes Us (And Why It's Been Around All The Time) from 2021-07-10T00:00
Many books, yes whole books, are dedicated to the pursuit of happiness. And yet, all it takes is a simple mind shift. Happiness isn't something we need to find, as it's something we feel all the...
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The Power of Deflection (Why It's a Crucial Strategy On An Interview). from 2021-07-03T00:00
In a perfect world, you would be asked a straightforward question, and you'd give the answer that was expected of you. And most of the time, interviews on podcasts, radio or TV can be just as yo...
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Why Understanding The Faces of Overwhelm Helps You Sidestep Frustration from 2021-06-26T00:00
We often see overwhelm as a nameless, faceless monster. It seems to charge into our lives like some Godzilla and never wants to leave.
However, the moment we categorise the concept ...
Three Unusually Zany Tips to Change Your Mindset from 2021-06-19T00:00
Sometimes we need to make big changes to our behaviour. Sometimes, it's just a little tweak.
In today's episode we look at three very tiny tweaks that I learned while listening to o...
Re-Run: Why You Don't Need Clickbait Headlines To Get Clients (The Power Of Normal Headlines) from 2021-06-12T00:00
Do Clickbait Headlines Work? Can a normal headline be just as powerful?
Clickbait headlines seem to be designed to get our curiosity. But what makes a clickbait headline so attractive i...
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Re-Run: The Contrarian Mindset (How To Think Differently Under Normal Business Circumstances) from 2021-06-05T00:00
When is it beneficial to adopt a contrarian mindset?
What does it mean to be a contrarian? What is the concept of contrarianism?
Do you know why Tesla is such a big car? Think ab...
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Re-Run: How To Systematically Manage The Pre-Sell Of Your Product or Service from 2021-05-29T00:00
Which product should you pre-sell?
Should it be the $20 product or the $2000 one?
<...
Re-Run: How To Systematically Manage The Pre-Sell Of Your Product or Service from 2021-05-29T00:00
Which product should you pre-sell?
Should it be the $20 product or the $2000 one?
<...
Re-Run: The Mastermind Mindset (How To Harness It Across Your Business) from 2021-05-22T00:00
What is a mastermind mindset? How does a mastermind group work for courses, workshop and membership sites?
When we think of a mastermind mindset, we tend to isolate the ideas to a group...
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Re-Run: Three Bizarre Learning Principles (And Why We Struggle With Learning) from 2021-05-15T00:00
Learning is odd. It should be logical, even progressive. This is why we feel that we're bad at learning. But if we recognise what's really happening, we can move forward steadily.
In this...
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Re-run: How To Be A Source Of Inspiration To Others from 2021-05-08T00:00
You'd think you'd need to be someone great or at least do something wonderful to inspire others.
Yet, you're a source of inspiration. How do you inspire? It's remarkably simple —and her...
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Re-run: How To Be A Source Of Inspiration To Others from 2021-05-08T00:00
You'd think you'd need to be someone great or at least do something wonderful to inspire others.
Yet, you're a source of inspiration. How do you inspire? It's remarkably simple —and her...
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Three Ordinary Aspects of Writing (That We Forget To Implement Consistently). from 2021-04-30T12:00
We often go looking for a magical solution to help us write. And yet the magic is often found in the ordinary. How can seemingly repetitive advice help you become a consistently good writer? Let...
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How Subsets Help You Gain Momentum In Business (And Gain New Clients Too!) from 2021-04-24T00:00
When someone asks you what you do, what do you say? People tend to give a top-level answer. They say, "I'm a lawyer, a real estate agent, a fitness trainer". And while that information is descri...
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Free vs Paid Content: Will clients buy if you give away a lot of free stuff? from 2021-04-17T00:00
Does generosity have its limits? Let's say you decide to give away a lot of information to clients. How do you get them to come back to buy the rest of your information? Won't it overlap? Won't ...
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Why unnecessary obstacles make writing so exhausting from 2021-04-10T00:00
When we think of writing, we automatically assume it's the act of sitting down at the computer and creating a new article, report or book. What we seem to miss is that there are other factors th...
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How to audit your information product in four systematic steps from 2021-04-02T23:00
It's one thing to create information and quite another to know whether you've ticked all the boxes. When creating information, the client doesn't just seek information. Instead, she looks for ot...
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Why list-building fails (and how to avoid the almost obvious failure): Part 2 from 2021-03-26T23:00
When we start to build a list, we think of followers or fans, but all of these potential clients are elsewhere on YouTube, or Instagram or Facebook. We can't wait for the fans to swell up in num...
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Why list-building fails (and how to avoid the almost obvious failure): Part 1 from 2021-03-19T23:00
It's a line we've all heard, but as it does in life, the very same line plays an extremely important role in list building. When we think of building lists, we hope that some course will give us...
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The Middle of the Project method: Where to restart a stalled activity from 2021-03-12T23:00
Imagine you've missed the sunrise for the past 300 days. Would that mean you'd give up on sunrise forever?We know the answer to the question, don't we? Even if we snoozed right a few hundred sun...
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Part 2. What Makes Articles Dull? The Curse of Writing Like an Author from 2021-03-05T23:00
In this second part, we go deeper into how it's not just the writing alone, but how a fixed formula can derail us. We often believe that if we've written 800 words in the past, the next article ...
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What Makes Articles Dull? The Curse of Writing Like an Author from 2021-02-26T23:00
Why does writing seem like a chore? It's easy to believe that we need more practice. But practice alone doesn't bring an article to life. A dull article, even when filled with lots of words, is ...
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The Dual Boomerang system of learning (that helps me get to the finish line). from 2021-02-19T23:00
Did you finish the last book you bought? How about that last course? And if you're like me, you probably have at least two dozen things that you've bought—and still not finished. Well, there's a...
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Why clients leave—and why lack of community is one of the big problems. from 2021-02-12T23:00
When clients leave, we automatically assume they say they aren't using the service or membership site. They give reasons why they're leaving, and it sounds logical to our ears. However, there ar...
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Why you should temporarily ignore the "1000 True Fans" concept—if you want to get ahead from 2021-02-05T23:00
The 1000 true fans concept seems to follow a simple multiplication rule. If you have a thousand fans and they buy $100 worth of product in a year, you earn $100,000. Which sounds perfectly fine ...
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How to turn an average elevator pitch into one that gets consistent attention from 2021-01-29T23:00
Almost all of us will be asked, “what do you do?” And despite having to answer this question frequently, we struggle to create a powerful sense of curiosity with our answer. In short, the elevat...
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Rerun: How to use "accidental research" to speed up your article writing from 2021-01-22T23:00
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Rerun: Mindset vs Skillset: Which one slows you down? from 2021-01-08T23:00
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Rerun: You Need To Start a Project—Not a Business from 2021-01-01T23:00
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Rerun: How to avoid mastery (and use 5-minute learning to get to fluency, instead) from 2020-12-25T23:00
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Rerun: Longevity secrets: How to consistently write newsletters for 20 years in a row from 2020-12-18T23:00
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How to motivate and inspire (even when things are going wrong) from 2020-12-11T23:00
Motivation people around you seems like an unending task. Your staff, your team, your walking group, your kid all need motivation. And all of them are motivated by different things. Some by mone...
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How to use group consulting to increase earning (and learning). from 2020-12-04T23:00
Which do you think is superior? Group or one on one consulting? Most people aren't likely to pick group consulting. It seems like the benefits of one on one consulting far exceed that of a group...
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Why we enter fields with less competition (and why that's a dangerous strategy) from 2020-11-27T23:00
If you were to ask someone to pick a field where there's more vs less competition, they're likely to pick one with less. And that would be a mistake, possibly a fatal one. Competition isn't bad ...
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April Fools Day: The Mad Genius of Renuka from 2020-11-20T23:00
You think you know Renuka, but maybe there's a bit you don't know quite yet. She looks mischievous, but her real mission comes alive on April 1. Enjoy this slightly unusual episode of April Fool...
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How to publish fixed prices on your website (even if you run a service). from 2020-11-13T23:00
The problem with a service-based-business is that you can't always publish a fixed price. The pricing always seems to depend on what needs to be done for the client. This results in a lot of was...
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Dread writing your newsletter? How to overcome that frustration in four easy steps from 2020-11-06T23:00
I used to hate writing a newsletter. It would be the task I'd keep postponing until the very last minute. Of course, that would make my entire week miserable. Until, I found what could be called...
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Why Success Benchmarks are Misleading (And How We Set Benchmarks for Success) from 2020-10-30T23:00
If you look around you, the obvious success benchmarks are usually money first, and then, at least a huge dollop of fame. But are our benchmarks of success skewed by Fortune Magazine or Inc or F...
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Planning on starting a membership site? How to decide which one is for you (Part 2) from 2020-10-23T23:00
When we think of membership sites we tend to think just about "information" based sites. However, there are many ways of looking at membership sites. In this second episode we dig into the "limi...
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Planning on starting a membership site? How to decide which one is for you (Part 1) from 2020-10-16T23:00
A membership site isn't just another site. Instead, it's almost like an inner circle where you draw your closest clients to you. Yet, which kind of membership site would suit you best? Should yo...
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Why sales and self-promotion seems yucky (and how to quickly overcome it) from 2020-10-09T23:00
Clients may love our work. They may refer us on to others. And yet, when it comes to sales, we shrivel back almost in horror. We find sales techniques to be a bit over the top and often borderin...
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How to recalibrate your life's priorities (despite the unending torrent of work) from 2020-10-02T23:00
Do you find yourself loving your work, but knowing that you're getting a bit one-dimensional? You work, then work, then work some more. And when others around you protest that you're working, yo...
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How to avoid duds and time-wasters when hiring or outsourcing staff from 2020-09-26T00:00
Which is the most frequently used method of evaluating someone you want to hire?Usually, the method used is quite bizarre. You tend to ask for references, probably some sort of resume and you're...
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How to create a pricing ecosystem that helps increase revenue and free time) from 2020-09-19T00:00
Imagine making one change in your pricing strategy. Then let's say you make two. But let's say we make three changes. With three tiny changes, we have not just made tiny little moves, but have c...
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How to extend or reduce article length by using the power of examples from 2020-09-12T00:00
Either your article is too long and bloated or it's much too skimpy. When faced with either of these situations we are at a loss as to what needs to be done. Well, worry no more because "example...
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3 Pesky Things That Bug Us at Psychotactics (And How We Overcame Them) from 2020-09-05T00:00
When you run a business, there are three things that seems to come up. The first is "ungrateful subscribers", the second is definitely "pirates" and the third is the "competition. No matter how ...
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Why "Normal Headlines" are more powerful than "Clickbait Headlines" from 2020-08-29T00:00
Clickbait headlines seem to be designed to get our curiosity. But what makes a clickbait headline so attractive in the first place? And how do we write "normal" headlines that are far superior i...
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How to give contrarian advice to clients (without a ton of proof and research) from 2020-08-22T00:00
Often contrarian advice is precisely what the client needs. But how do you present the concepts to clients? Don't you need a lot of proof and research? Here's how you can get your client to not ...
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How to reframe your business with a contrarian system (and make it stand out) from 2020-08-15T00:00
It's one thing to say "be contrarian" but you can stick out too much. And anyway, we don't particularly care to disagree. Yet, being contrarian gives you a uniqueness factor that gets the attent...
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How To Use a Contrarian Mindset to Your Advantage from 2020-08-08T00:00
Do you know why the Tesla is such a big car? Think about it for a second. Tesla Motors only make electric cars. The bigger the car, the heavier it's going to be and the greater the drain on the ...
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Why You Need To Start a Project—Not a Business from 2020-08-01T00:00
When we think of making the transition to our own business, why do we freeze? It's simply because we're not sure where to start. A business has so many aspects to it. Yet, most business people n...
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Quick Tips: 3 Speedy Methods to Get Great Testimonials from 2020-07-25T00:00
When it comes to testimonials, we tend to end up with rambling, not so great testimonials? How do we get powerful experiences, instead of watered down testimonials? Here are three quick (and rel...
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Rerun 6: Info-product Creation Part 2: Double Your Sales With Versions and Satellite Products from 2020-07-18T00:00
The final rerun of six re-runs: Can you really double your sales of a product you've created a while ago? And why are satellite products so very useful to clients and profitable to your info-pro...
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Rerun 5: How To Avoid Overwhelm (And Systematically Complete Projects) from 2020-07-11T00:00
The fifth of six re-runs: Whenever you have a deadline, somehow you're able to stagger towards it and get the job done. But other tasks never seem to move forward. You fall behind on your readin...
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Rerun 4: Why Success Is Hindered By The Lack of the Tolerance Effect from 2020-07-04T00:00
The fourth of six re-runs: It might not seem like tolerance is the root for success, but if you dig deeper, you'll find that small businesses struggle without these core concepts of tolerance. S...
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Rerun 3: How To Validate Your Business Idea (And Overcome Self-Doubt) from 2020-06-27T00:00
The third of six re-runs: How do you know whether an idea is good or bad? Is there a system of validation for your info-products, courses and workshops, or do you just go with the wisdom of the ...
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Rerun 2: How a Lack of Energy, Not Time, Causes Writers to Stall and Crash from 2020-06-20T00:00
The second of six re-runs: One of the biggest hurdles in writing, has nothing to do with writing at all. It doesn't have anything to do with time, either. Instead, it's an understanding of energ...
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Rerun 1: Are You Tempted To Use Hype? How To Avoid Hype And Still Get Clients from 2020-06-13T00:00
The first of six re-runs: Hype works exceedingly well, even when the client knows they're being duped a bit. But what if you can't stand hype? Does that mean you roll over and play dead? Here's ...
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How to harness the Mastermind Mindset (and use it across your business) from 2020-06-06T00:00
When we think of mastermind-based concepts, we tend to isolate the ideas to a group of people. But what if you could use the very same concepts in courses, workshops and even in membership sites...
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Lockdown Gratitude from New Zealand from 2020-06-03T00:00
It feels difficult to feel any gratitude when you're cooped up. Yet, these weeks in relative isolation have also brought unexpected joy. This is a small insight into how it has changed our perso...
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How to use "accidental research" to speed up your article writing from 2020-05-30T00:00
One of the most draining aspects of article writing is the research that we need to put into writing an article. No matter how hard we try, we end up spending hours, even days digging up for the...
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Mindset vs Skillset: Which one slows you down? from 2020-05-23T00:00
We've been told time and time again that our mindsets need to change in order to change our skillsets. But what if it's the other way around? Why are we still stuck despite making a change to ou...
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How to rapidly transition from task to task (and avoid getting distracted in the switchover) from 2020-05-16T00:00
When are you and I the most distracted? Often, it's right after you've finished one task and on your way to start another. You've planned your day well, but you lose your momentum and before you...
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Why Optimists Die of a Broken Heart: The Stockdale Paradox from 2020-05-09T00:00
Imagine you are a prisoner of war. You're thrown into an isolation space, not just for a week, or month, but for an entire year. All the while you're being tortured and despair seems to be aroun...
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Three Hearthwarming Travel Stories Just for you from 2020-05-02T00:00
Travel can be good, bad or even ugly. But in our travels through India in Feb 2020, we ran into a sense of warmth that needs to be shared. Get yourself a coffee or tea as you settle in for some ...
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What I learned in 2019 (and have to keep reminding myself all year) from 2020-04-25T00:00
We all get into argumentative situations. Yet, these situations almost always leave us worse off than before. How can we learn to negotiate instead of creating confrontation, and end up even bet...
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Why Creating "Rubbish—Lots of Rubbish" is the key to outstanding work from 2020-04-18T00:00
Many times when we are asked to show our work, we're quite reluctant. There's a reason for this reluctance. It's more than likely that the work is quite shoddy. And yet, what if we changed our p...
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Scientific Advertising Part 2: Why a hundred year old book matters more today than ever before from 2020-04-11T04:00
Does a 100 year old book on advertising still apply today?
In part two we explore the second of Hopkins' principles: tell your full story.
If you ever tire of the slightly ri...
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Scientific Advertising Part 1: Why a hundred year old book matters more today than ever before from 2020-04-03T23:00
Does a 100 year old book on advertising still apply today? In this two-part series we delve into concepts that are not just relevant, but crucial in marketing. Find out the principles that have ...
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How to use simple stories to pre-sell your products and services from 2020-03-27T23:00
Pre-sell is notoriously difficult for most entrepreneurs. It feels greasy and icky at times. And that lack of enthusiasm dooms the sale from the very start. But what if there were a way to sell ...
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Why the Psychotactics Planning Starts with "Beer" from 2020-03-20T23:00
Most of us are more than likely to get going by having a to-do list. Yet, we at Psychotactics do things a little differently. We start with the breaks, to begin with (and there's even a "Julia s...
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How to wring the curiosity out of the first-line of your article from 2020-03-13T23:00
The first line of an article drives most of us insane. And as if that were not enough, we are called upon to write an interesting first line. How do you nail that first line every single time? H...
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3 ½ Nifty Tips We've Learned On Our Travels from 2020-03-06T23:00
How do you find the most authentic food in a foreign city, minutes after you've landed? How do you find seats on a plane where people won't bump into you while you're sleeping? These and some ot...
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Learning Strategy Tweaks: How I Use Slightly-Odd Ways to Ramp Up Learning from 2020-02-28T23:00
Most of us have tried and are unable to keep up with the onslaught of information that comes our way. Add the deluge of distraction and it seems like a losing game. Or does it? You'll be amazed ...
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Longevity secrets: How to consistenly write newsletters for 20 years in a row. from 2020-02-21T23:00
Would you be able to write a newsletter on a weekly basis and keep it going for the next 20 years? How do you even get topics, let alone write consistently for all of this time? The answer lies ...
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How to avoid mastery (and use 5-minute learning to get to fluency, instead) from 2020-02-14T23:00
Would you choose between mastery or fluency? Many would opt for mastery, but it might just be the wrong choice to make. If, instead, you work with fluency, you can get incredibly talented while ...
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Rerun 6: How to Craft Interesting Stories and Analogies (For Articles and Sales Letters) from 2020-02-08T05:15
How do you make your articles or sales letters more interesting? Analogies and stories always increase the drama and attention span. Yet, it's hard to find and craft interesting stories on a reg...
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Rerun 5: How to Validate Your Uniqueness with Testimonials from 2020-01-31T23:00
Let's say you come up with what you believe is a great uniqueness for your product or service. How would you know if it's great or not? The answer is deceptively simple: every client needs to ec...
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Rerun 4: Why "Elegance" not "Information" Creates an Addictive Business Model from 2020-01-24T23:00
Why do some books, courses or workshops end up becoming so addictive? Is it the teacher, the system, the information, or is it all of the above? In this podcast we look at why your business need...
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Rerun 3: The crazy philosophy of Psychotactics (and why it may help you in your business) from 2020-01-17T23:00
When we think of business, marketing tactics and strategy comes to mind, doesn't it? Philosophy does exist but it may be a bit on the back burner. Yet, for us at Psychotactics, philosophy looms ...
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Rerun 2: Want to get paid a lot in advance? 3 Methods to get paid earlier than ever before from 2020-01-10T23:00
One of the most mind numbing tasks is to get a client to pay for the job you've completed. Clients tend to be slow with payments or just default. But is there a way to avoid such a mess? There's...
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Rerun 1: The Overwhelm Virus: How To Get It Out of Your Daily Routine from 2020-01-03T23:00
We tend to believe that we're more overwhelmed than ever before. Yet look around you and you see people who are doing twice or thrice as much. It's hard to admit it, but often their work is of a...
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Back to the Future: Why the 2020 strategy is a lot like 2000 from 2019-12-27T23:00
Remember when Google started? Or Amazon? At Psychotactics we started a few years after these giants. It’s perfectly normal to assume that we got in at exactly the right time. But you and I know ...
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Why Mundane Topics Get You Noticed by Clients (And How to Exploit the Power of Mundanity) from 2019-12-20T23:00
Most of us think we have to be incredibly special, or at least different to stand out in a crowded market. Yet, at least at the starting point, it’s the mundane that gets the attention. If anyth...
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The Myth of the Saturated Market—And Why You Should Not Let “Saturation” Intimidate You from 2019-12-13T23:00
If you and I look around, we see product or services just like ours everywhere. Instantly we get a feeling of having missed the bus. The market is clearly saturated and there’s little or no poin...
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How to use contrast to prevent headlines from going flat (and other questions) from 2019-12-06T23:00
If you’ve ever wondered if your headline is lacking some oomph, it might be because of an incredibly simple omission. It’s the lack of contrast. Contrast works in real life with colours, texture...
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Why "work for free" is a powerful strategy to get ahead as a startup business from 2019-11-29T23:00
The advice about "free vs fee" is clear. Free should be avoided at all costs because you will just be taken advantage of, while others get paid. Yet, this seemingly black and white advice has sh...
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Why Three Precise Fixes Can Quickly Improve Your About-Us Page from 2019-11-22T23:00
After the home page, the second most-visited page on many sites is the About Us page. Yet almost all the About Us pages you visit are drab, long winded or don't give much detail at all. If you a...
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Three Bizarre Learning Principles (And Why They Constantly Surprise Me) from 2019-11-15T23:00
If you've used some sort of learning techniques all your life, the core principles of learning should not mislead you. Even so, we get hoodwinked and it's important to look at why we struggle wi...
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Why writing headlines can be an excellent brainstorming exercise for real articles from 2019-11-08T23:00
Do you often get stuck when trying to come up with article topics? One of the reasons why we tend to struggle is because we get stuck at the "topic" level. However, when you write headlines, not...
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Why Random Learning is Superior (And Other Weird Learning Methods) from 2019-11-01T23:00
We tend to learn in sequence. Chapter one, two and three. But what if we broke the sequence? Would that enhance our learning? In this rather sequential piece, you learn how I tend to break quite...
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The Impostor vs The Beginner Syndrome (And Why They're Not The Same) from 2019-10-18T23:00
Almost all of us feel like impostors from time to time. And we even have an official sounding name for it. But the impostor syndrome is an unfair burden to carry. What if we're just beginners? A...
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How to be a source of inspiration to others from 2019-10-11T23:00
You'd think you'd need to be someone great or at least do something wonderful. Yet, you're a source of inspiration. How do you inspire? It's remarkably simple —and here's a short piece on how yo...
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The 21-Day Habit Myth (and how you can create a habit in minutes, instead) from 2019-10-04T23:00
You've heard that it takes about 21 days to create a habit. But what if that weren't true at all? Could it be possible to create a habit overnight? Or even in the next few minutes? Let's find ou...
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Habit Change? 3 Unusual Angles on how to look at habit transformation from 2019-09-28T00:00
It might seem that it's always up to us to change our habits. And that idea might be quite incorrect. Instead, what if something around us changed and our habits changed with it? Instead of us t...
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Rerun: How to Research An Article (Without Killing Your Productivity) from 2019-09-21T00:00
Researching an article is so frustrating because it's time-consuming. But there are ways to beat the pressure—and the pain. Believe it or not, there are ways to be productive with zero last minu...
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Rerun: Coaching Series: How to Start Up with a Great Niche from 2019-09-14T00:00
(Rerun of episode #220 Coaching Series Part 1 of 3). The toughest part of coaching isn't necessarily coaching itself. Instead, it's the niche, isn't it? How do you go looking for the right niche...
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Rerun: Why You Should Ignore Your Competition from 2019-09-07T00:00
It seems natural to keep an eye, even get obsessive about your competitors. However, it's a poor strategy for many reasons. In this episode we make the case for why the competition doesn't reall...
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Rerun: Mental Barriers That Slow You Down (And Derail Your Progress) from 2019-08-31T00:00
How many books do you read in a year? Most people boast about how they read hundreds of books a year. That's what I used to do as well. Until I found that I wasn't really absorbing any informati...
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Rerun: Why The “End In Mind” Principle Can Severely Impede Our Learning and Progress from 2019-08-24T00:00
We're all told we should start with the end in mind, but we still get lost along the way. Why do we go off track? Could there be some barriers that show up a lot before the end? Let's find out w...
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Presell Strategy: Some Unusual Questions from 2019-08-17T00:00
Do you pre-sell if your audience is away on vacation? Should you pre-sell if you're unsure of a full house? These and other questions are what's on this Part 2 of the pre-sell podcast.
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Pre-sell Strategy: How to strategically tackle promotion of products and services from 2019-08-10T00:00
Which product should you pre-sell? Should it be the $20 product or the $2000 one? And why do silos matter so much? In this episode we not only learn why the $20 product might matter more, but al...
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How I cope with my information overload (and manage to keep sane) from 2019-08-03T00:00
Most of us believe that to cope with information, we have to speed up.
But we've all tried that, haven't we? And it doesn't seem to work at all.
This episode is about why w...
How to be a non-mediocre coach from 2019-07-27T00:00
Many coaches and trainers struggle to get precise results for their clients
And it's not for want of trying, either. They work very hard, probably too hard, and yet the clients don't ge...
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Fun Ways To Get Unstuck (When Creating Content) from 2019-07-20T00:00
Is there a fun way to get unstuck? From all the experiences we've had so far, getting stuck is a real pain. The more we try to get unstuck, the more we seem to dig a deeper hole. But what if the...
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Why The Top-Half of the Sales Page Goes Wrong (And How to Fix It) from 2019-07-13T00:00
Why are some sales pages so confusing?
Is it because of the message or rather because there are way too many messages hitting you all at once? A sales page needs a powerful message to g...
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Why Writing a Fixed Number of Words Every Day Could Be Hindering Your Writing Progress from 2019-07-06T00:00
As writers, we count words when we are creating a book or writing an article.
We look at completing a fixed number of words per day—800 words. And yet, that system can be counterproduct...
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Can We Really Systemise Luck? (Or Do We Continue to Depend Upon Hard Work) from 2019-06-29T00:00
Luck it seems, is fickle? Or is it?
How come some people are lucky (or as the case may be, unlucky) all the while. There is indeed a system and it may be off a bit, like weather forecas...
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Hard work vs Luck: Which one is more dependable? from 2019-06-26T00:45
If you reached the top of your game, would you credit it to hard work or luck?
Most of us quite easily slide into crediting our success to hard work. But what if hard work isn't necessa...
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How to Create Intensely Catchy Book Names (Without Too Much of a Struggle) from 2019-06-15T00:00
Naming a book or info-product is often a royal pain in the neck.
And that's because most of us tend to sit down at our desk hoping for inspiration to strike. The weird bit is that inspi...
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How to avoid embarrassing time overruns when making presentations from 2019-06-08T00:00
How to avoid embarrassing time overruns when making presentations?
Timing your presentations are crucial yet all the practice in the world may not help if there's an external issue. An ...
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Coolest Transcription Service (That Even Detects Punctuation) from 2019-06-01T00:00
What is the biggest headache with transcription? Well, there are many, aren't there?
Errors bug me no end, and they seem to make a lot of them. There's also the cos...
Stories of Failure (Filos Moments) from 2019-05-25T00:00
You know how you're told to make lemonade when life hands you lemons?
Well, what do you do with overripe bananas? You make Filos!
This episode is about...
How To Overcome the Impostor Syndrome (By Understanding The Psychology of How it Works) from 2019-05-18T00:00
Many, if not most of us, have already experienced what it seems like to be a fraud in our mind.
Still we can't seem to shake the impostor syndrome.
But...
How to De-Stress with the "Second-Last-Minute Deadline" from 2019-05-14T18:47:53
Most of us have probably said something to the effect of "If it weren't for the deadline, I'd get nothing done".
Yet, for many of us, a deadline is crushing, if not crippling. We sc...
The Magic of Set Up: Why Some Courses Are Better Than Others from 2019-05-04T00:00
What makes some courses vastly better than others?
The answer lies not in the content, or the instruction, but rather in the set up.
But why is...
How to Accelerate Client Learning (And The Suprising Power of Fun) Part 2 from 2019-04-27T00:00
Fun seems obvious as a concept.
But "fun in learning" almost seems like a bit of a paradox.
What is "fun" and how can you find it, let alone use it whe...
How to Accelerate Client Learning (Using Spaced Repetition) Part 1 from 2019-04-20T00:00
Why do we get upset with ourselves when we forget information?
Surely we should be able to remember at least 30-40% of a book. But it seems to slide through our brain lik...
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How To Use Contrast To Create Your Uniqueness In Seconds from 2019-04-13T00:00
If you were asked: What is the uniqueness of this podcast, would you be able to answer the question?
The chances are that you might state one of the features, but n...
How to Stop "Perfectionist” Clients From Sabotaging Their Own Success from 2019-04-05T23:00
It's not unusual for clients to say they're perfectionists.
This means they take more time, spend more effort and they sound like the ideal client on your course. B...
How do you incentivise clients to finish a course? from 2019-03-29T23:00
Most courses have huge dropout rates.
And yet, that's not the case for some teachers and trainers.
What makes some courses so dramatically different? T...
How to Validate Your Uniqueness with Testimonials from 2019-03-22T23:00
Let's say you come up with what you believe is a great uniqueness for your product or service.
How would you know if it's great or not?
The answer is d...
Company of One: Why Staying Small Is Smart, Book Review, Part 2 from 2019-03-15T23:00
Big companies talk a lot about leadership. However you and I may not have that big charisma factor.
What do we have to do to get things done when working with freelancers? What if we ne...
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Why Staying Small is Probably A Smarter Move, Book Review, Part 1 from 2019-03-08T23:00
Think Big. Really?
Studies show us that scaling up is often disastrous for most companies. But what's the alternative? That's what we look at in this book review—well, chapter review—of C...
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How WhatsApp Helped Fill The Munich Workshop from 2019-03-01T23:00
People are often amazed at how quickly we fill our workshops and courses.
It's almost like we have a separate channel to our clients.
Well, as it appea...
Announcement: Frankfurt Meetup Details - May 2019 from 2019-02-23T23:00
Quick announcement regarding the Frankfurt Meetup coming up in May.
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Are You Tempted to Use Hype? How to Avoid Hype and Still Get Clients from 2019-02-22T23:00
Hype works exceedingly well, even when the client knows they're being duped a bit.
But what if you can't stand hype?
Does that mean you roll over and play de...
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When Quitting Is the Smarter Option (Instead of Just Hanging On) from 2019-02-15T23:00
In business the advice we get is to hang in, no matter what happens.
Yet, to me that sounds like the wrong advice.
You definitely need to hang in a bit when ...
The Philosophy of Psychotactics - Part Two from 2019-02-08T23:00
We may often hear ourselves saying, we have a long to-do list.
Or things that we still haven't completed.
Or worse, we may talk about how we have no time.
Often, ...
The Crazy Philosophy Of Psychotactics (And Why It May Help You In Your Business) - Part One from 2019-02-01T23:00
When we think of business, marketing tactics and strategy comes to mind, doesn't it?
Philosophy does exist but it may be a bit on the back burner. Yet, for us at Ps...
How To Sell A Product When There's No Scarcity Factor from 2019-01-25T23:00
So much effort goes into the launch of a product, but what happens next? How do you handle the calm after the launch? How do you keep selling products on an ongoing basis? These are the question...
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Persistent Myths of Pricing (And How To Overcome Them) - Part One from 2019-01-18T23:00
When we price a product or service we often use the ending 7 or 9. As in $27 or $29. Is there any basis for using such an ending? Yes, there is, but does it help to sell more products or service...
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Mental Barriers That Slow You Down (And Derail Your Progress) from 2019-01-11T23:00
How many books do you read in a year? Most people boast about how they read hundreds of books a year. That's what I used to do as well. Until I found that I wasn't really absorbing any informati...
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How To Thrive and Succeed In The Midst Of Chaos from 2019-01-04T23:00
Most of us have grand plans to succeed. Yet, almost the moment we start there are a million distractions in our way. Chaos lurches around in our doorway and there seems to be no way out.
<...
How To Achieve A Lot—The Three Part Formula from 2018-12-28T23:00
How do you maintain a high productivity level when switching tasks? How do you get the brain and body to handle the transition? And how do you manage the transitions with a minimum amount of fus...
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Three Steps To Getting Your Uniqueness Recognised from 2018-12-22T00:00
When you create or find your uniqueness, do you need to test it?
Incredible as it seems there's little point in doing any testing at all.
In this episode you'll find ou...
How to Avoid Gaping Holes in Your Article Writing (and How Objections Fill Those Gaps) from 2018-12-14T23:00
Objections aren't something we necessary think about when writing articles. We're so focused on the main content that we might see no need to contradict ourselves. Yet, it's this very contradict...
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Coaching Series: Why Clients Nod But Don't Call - Part Three from 2018-12-07T23:00
One of biggest problems with any sort of prospecting is the dead silence right after clients love what you've said or done.
You'd think they'd call immediately, but there's not a peep o...
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Coaching Series: How Niches Can Easily Be Found in Recurring Client Problems - Part Two from 2018-11-30T23:00
We all struggle to find niches when trying to get into the coaching game. But is it really that hard?
Or have we been looking in the wrong places? This episode shows you how you can fin...
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Coaching Series: How To Start Up With A Great Niche - Part One from 2018-11-24T01:00
The toughest part of coaching isn't necessarily coaching itself. Instead, it's the niche, isn't it?
How do you go looking for the right niche? And how do you know when you've found one ...
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Writer's Block Series: How a Lack of Energy, Not Time, Causes Writers to Stall and Crash - Part Four from 2018-11-16T23:00
One of the biggest hurdles in writing, has nothing to do with writing at all.
It doesn't have anything to do with time, either. Instead, it's an understanding of energy. Without a clear...
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Writer's Block Series: Why Discussion and Feedback Are A Writer's Secret Weapon (And How Professionals Use it to Their Advantage) - Part Three from 2018-11-09T23:00
How do you speed up your writing process and what causes it to slow down to a crawl?
Surprisingly, discussion and feedback play an incredibly powerful role in unblocking Writer's Block....
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Writer's Block Series: Why Cross Pollination of Ideas, Media and Styles Are Crucial (And Avoids Shutdowns When Writing) - Part Two from 2018-11-02T23:00
Most of us are content to learn a great deal about what's happening in our industry, but is that causing a blockage when it comes to writing? When we go into the depths of writer's block, we fin...
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Writer's Block Series : Why the Lack of Outlines Even Stops Professional Writers In Their Tracks - Part One from 2018-10-26T23:00
If you're already good at writing, do you need an outline?
It might seem one more barrier and yet it's the first element that creates this so called Writer's Block. Find out why outline...
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Want To Get Paid A Lot In Advance? Three Methods To Get Paid Earlier from 2018-10-19T23:00
One of the most mind numbing tasks is to get a client to pay for the job you've completed
Clients tend to be slow with payments or just default. But is there a way to avoid such a mess?...
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Why Unfamiliarity With Your Research Stories Will Make Them Worthless from 2018-10-12T23:00
Most of us are quite obsessed with stashing away case studies, examples and stories. However, it's not enough to simply put it away. You have to be reasonably familiar with the story. And how yo...
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Fritoons Announcement from 2018-10-09T23:00
This is not a regular podcast episode but a quick announcement about Fritoon... Your chance to receive a funny cartoon direct to your inbox every Friday. Visit psychotactics.com/fritoon , to sig...
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How To Research An Article (Without Killing Your Productivity) from 2018-10-05T23:00
Researching an article is so frustrating because it's time-consuming
But there are ways to beat the pressure—and the pain. Believe it or not, there are ways to be productive with zero l...
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How to Use "Transition Techniques" to keep your reader locked into your article from 2018-09-29T00:00
Readers often get lost in an article and hence abandon it. However, there are pretty simple, yet powerful methods to let the reader know exactly where they are in the article at all times. Plus ...
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The story of why the Psychotactics Website took three long years—and a month—to complete from 2018-09-22T00:00
Websites are daunting projects but even the casual listener is astounded to learn that a website took three years to complete. Of course there's a story, so here we go with the tale.
The Cannibalisation Strategy: Why You Need to Make Your Products (And Services) Redundant from 2018-09-15T00:00
It sounds bizarre to make your own products, courses and services redundant, but it's a very sound strategy that's been used by companies such as General Motors, Apple—and oh, we've done it for ...
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Why You Should Ignore Your Competition from 2018-09-08T00:00
It seems natural to keep an eye, even get obsessive about your competitors. However, it's a poor strategy for many reasons. In this episode we make the case for why the competition doesn't reall...
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"Pit Stop" Testimonials: How to Ensure Testimonials (even when your product or service isn't quite ready) from 2018-09-01T00:00
When it comes to testimonials for our product or service, we assume clients have to get to the end. Or do they?
The reality is that it's a mistake to wait until the end because anyway c...
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Why The “End In Mind” Principle Can Severely Impede Our Learning and Progress from 2018-08-25T00:00
We're all told we should start with the end in mind, but we still get lost along the way.
Why do we go off track? Could there be some barriers that show up a lot before the end? Let's f...
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How to Ramp up Curiosity Using a Controversial Topic - Part Two from 2018-08-18T00:00
It's one thing to get attention, but how do you use it on sales pages? And what about articles? Can we use it there as well? In this second part we see how the power of objections work for sales...
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How to Ramp Up Curiosity (Even When Using a Controversial Topic) - Part One from 2018-08-11T00:00
Most of us avoid controversy because it brings up too much pushback.
But what if you were able to get your very controversial topic across and delight your clients? Let's find out how t...
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Why "Elegance" not "Information" Creates an Addictive Business Model from 2018-08-04T00:00
Why do some books, courses or workshops end up becoming so addictive? Is it the teacher, the system, the information, or is it all of the above? In this podcast we look at why your business need...
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The Overwhelm Virus: How To Get It Out of Your Daily Routine from 2018-07-28T00:00
We tend to believe that we're more overwhelmed than ever before. Yet look around you and you see people who are doing twice or thrice as much. It's hard to admit it, but often their work is of a...
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Why Onboarding is Crucial (And Most Companies Ignore It) from 2018-07-21T01:00
Is it hard to get a client?
Sure it is, but how many of us “lose” the client within minutes or days? We may not realise it, but without a very clear on-boarding system, clients simply g...
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Four Recurring Testimonial Mysteries (And How To Solve Them) from 2018-07-14T00:00
Testimonials are extremely powerful in solving problems that range from getting the clients you want, to finding your uniqueness. How do you use testimonials to increase conversion or just chang...
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Why Giving is Rushed (And How to Make Gifting More Deliberate) from 2018-07-07T00:00
We might be generous, but are we rushing the act of giving?
Often we give people what we want, instead of what they would like to receive. Can giving be less rushed...
How To Work With Chaos (and Succeed) from 2018-06-30T00:00
Chaos comes visiting every day. Are we prepared to receive it? The reason for stress is a lack of planning on how to deal with chaos. Let's find out how it's done.
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Can You Successfully Defend Your Work Against Criticism? (Lessons from Malcolm Gladwell - Part Three) from 2018-06-23T00:00
What happens when your book finally goes out into the world? Gladwell has been attacked time and time again for his chapter on the 10,000 hour rule. But was the attack justified? Or was it all w...
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How To Choose Evocative Titles for your Book (Lessons from Malcolm Gladwell - Part Two) from 2018-06-16T00:00
Choosing the title of a book seems to be an almost impossible task. Is there a method or science behind a title that works vs. a title that's just "meh?" And interestingly, when does a "meh" tit...
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How to Get Precise Feedback for your Articles (Lessons from Malcolm Gladwell - Part One) from 2018-06-09T00:00
Most of us aren't really sure how to know if our articles are really good, or even if an idea is good.
It gets more complicated when we have a story that we love. Does everyone love it ...
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How To Use Momentum To Your Advantage from 2018-06-02T00:00
It's very hard for most of us to slow down, but what happens when we slow down to a complete standstill? This little snippet is our story of how we got back and were stuck for two whole weeks. H...
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Demystifying the 4am Routine from 2018-05-26T00:00
What happens at 4 am? That's a question I often get at Psychotactics, because I've been up for well over 25 years at 4 am. Well, that's how the question started, but you also get a bit of a peek...
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Why Clients Shy Away From Giving Feedback Despite Liking Your Products and Services from 2018-05-19T00:00
When a client buys your product or service, they obviously like it at some level, right? So why is it so very hard to get feedback? The answer may not lie in the act of feedback itself, but inst...
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How To Create A Uniqueness That's Difficult For Competition To Replicate from 2018-05-12T00:00
Finding or creating a uniqueness is hard enough all by itself. But how can your small business create a stunning uniqueness as well as defend it mightily from your competition? Tah, dah, you bri...
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Why Smaller Lists Work Just As Well As Big Ones - Part Three from 2018-05-05T00:00
Why would clients trust you when you're new and you goof up?
This is an incredibly insightful question as clients can be skeptical. Yet, it's incredible how much enthusiasm and...
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Why Smaller Lists Work Just As Well As Big Ones - Part Two from 2018-04-28T00:00
Smaller lists work amazingly well, but there's a big task at hand
You not only have to keep clients coming back, but prevent them from leaving as well. How do you do that? At Psychotact...
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Why Smaller Lists Work Just As Well As Big Ones (And Often, Even Better) - Part One from 2018-04-21T00:00
Does a big list guarantee success? You know the answer to that one, already, don't you?
Your small business isn't going to grow exponentially because you suddenly have a big list. Yet, ...
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How to Overcome Perfection With Speedy Revisions from 2018-04-14T00:00
Is there really a cure for perfectionism?
How can you make your work far superior in a shorter amount of time, often moving ahead of your peers? The answer lies in nature. In this episo...
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Why Good Habits Fail While Bad Habits Thrive (and How to Flip Things Around) from 2018-04-07T00:00
Are habits a matter of routine? You'd think so, wouldn't you? Yet, there's a bigger factor in play that goes beyond a cue and routine. It's called the Reward. There's just one problem: how do yo...
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How to Craft Interesting Stories and Analogies (For Articles and Sales Letters) from 2018-04-01T05:00
How do you make your articles or sales letters more interesting?
Analogies and stories always increase the drama and attention span. Yet, it's hard to find and craft interesting stories...
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Why Clients Leave - Part One from 2018-03-24T16:23:14
Why do clients leave?
It seems odd, doesn't it? When you ask a client why they join, they seem to suggest it is all about information and content, but then they inexplicably leave. They...
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Why Waiting Lists Fail-Part Two from 2018-03-17T00:00
The very moment you announce a waiting list, it seems like a nerve-wracking decision.
Is it going to drive clients away?
Or will it work?
The odds are it will fail if you d...
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Smart Waiting Lists: 3 Elements That Create Waiting Lists that Work from 2018-03-11T00:00
A waiting list seems to be both a barrier and an enticement
The problem with waiting lists is that they fail, and fail miserably if you don't get the elements right. So what are the ele...
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How to Become An Overnight Success from 2018-03-04T00:00
How do you instantly grow your small business?
How do you become “rich” overnight? These are the frustrations we have to deal with, almost every single day as we wade through the tempta...
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Why Calibrated Questions Enable You to Win Your Negotiation Battle from 2018-02-25T00:00
Is negotiation a skill?
How do you win when your back is against the wall? When negotiating will aggression help or should you use something else, like questions? Questions play a role,...
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How to Negotiate (And Win) When the Odds Are Against You from 2018-02-18T00:00
Imagine you're dealing with a terrorist or hijacker who has captives and threatens to blow up everything if you don't agree with his demands. How would that knowledge help when negotiating with ...
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How To Increase Product Sales using The Brain Audit from 2018-02-10T18:07:57
Is it really possible to get a surge in sales with products? And are product sales similar or different from services? In this episode, we go exclusively into the sale of products. But more impo...
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How to have enduring sales after the launch of a product from 2018-02-04T00:00
So much effort goes into the launch of a product, but what happens next? How do you handle the calm after the launch? How do you keep selling products on an ongoing basis? These are the question...
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Four Super-Cool Travel Tips (That Save a Lot of Bother) from 2018-01-28T00:00
How do you sleep in an exceedingly noisy environment?
How do you beat jet lag? These are some of the questions we've had for years. This episode shows you how we've stumbled on a few ni...
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Rerun - Why Contrast Ramps Interest in Article Writing from 2018-01-19T23:00
What is the hallmark of great content? When you start writing articles, you get advice from all sides. But there's advice you don't want to hear. It's advice that goes against the grain. And yet...
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Rerun - How To Slow Down (Even Under Crazy Conditions) from 2018-01-12T23:00
The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere This is an elaboration/review of the book by Pico Iyer. How do you slow down? What do you mean by going nowhere? And how can we slow down with o...
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Replay- How To Instantly Get Your Audience's Attention from 2018-01-12T23:00
Which is the most frustrating part of an article? Yes, it's the First Fifty Words. We get so stuck at the starting point that it's almost impossible to go ahead. But what if there were not just ...
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Rerun - When Landing Pages Go Bad from 2018-01-05T23:00
Why do some landing pages work while others fail? The core of a landing page lies in picking a target profile. Yet, it's incredibly easy to mix up a target profile with a target audience. And wo...
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Replay - Why Energy Management Is Far Superior to Time Management from 2017-12-29T23:00
In this episode we look at the relationship between energy management and time management. In the modern age we are expected to be on the go continuously; working while on holiday, being ever av...
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Surprise Christmas Gift - The Brain Audit from 2017-12-23T23:00
Listen in to find out how you can receive a surprise Christmas gift!
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Rerun- How To Instantly Get Your Audience's Attention from 2017-12-22T23:00
Which is the most frustrating part of an article? Yes, it's the First Fifty Words. We get so stuck at the starting point that it's almost impossible to go ahead. But what if there were not just ...
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Rerun - How to Get Smart and Stay Smart from 2017-12-15T23:00
Many of us believe that smartness comes from learning the skills in our own field. And yet, that's only partially true. We can never be as smart as we want to be, if we only have tunnel vision. ...
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Rerun- How to Validate Your Idea (Even When It's Brand New) from 2017-12-08T23:00
Even if you have the best idea in the world, analysis-paralysis can stop you in your tracks. You feel frozen, not sure what to do. So you research. Then you do some more research and educate you...
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Replay-How To Write Stunning Headlines With And, Even and Without from 2017-12-01T22:40:45
When writing headlines, you often get stuck. Can grammar come to the rescue when under pressure? Find out how grammar class helps you write outstanding headlines in a jiffy.
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The Intense Power of Kindness (And How It Has Nothing To Do With Business) from 2017-11-25T20:24:46
In 1970, two psychologists did a very interesting experiment called the “The Good Samaritan experiment”.
It was meant to determine whether we're kind other some conditions and oblivious...
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How To Speed Up Client-Learning With The Incredible Power of Infotainment from 2017-11-18T00:05:29
What causes clients to keep coming back?
Is it information?
Or could it be entertainment?
For too long we've treated teaching and learning as an activity that needs endless...
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How Managed Procrastination Works to Your Advantage from 2017-11-10T23:00
Procrastination is bad, right? Well, not quite. If you break up a project, you're likely to find most projects have five distinct sections. To get to the end of the project, you're going to need...
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How To Transform A Miserable Day Into A Happy One, In Under 30 Minutes from 2017-11-04T19:32:36
Some days you just feel fed up of your work. You know you shouldn't. You love what you do, but you can't shake the feeling. You almost have to drag yourself to work and you don't know how to tur...
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How to Get Clients To Return To An Offline Event from 2017-10-28T00:00
How do you get clients to return?
One of the most underrated tactics is often right under your nose. Yet most people having events don't realise the mistake they're making and have to w...
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Why You Need An Offline Event to Boost Your Chances of Success from 2017-10-21T00:00
Most of us dream of having an online business
We are led to believe it's fine to just start up a blog and the audience will show up. Reality is a lot different. It takes time for an aud...
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One-Buttock Passion (How a Simple Redefinition Can Help You Move Forward) from 2017-10-14T00:00
How do you redefine the term “passion”?
A definition shouldn't be a barrier to your progress, should it? Yet, the moment you hear people talking about passion, you're stuck. And that's ...
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Why You Should Stop Looking for Your Passion (And Let it Find You Instead) from 2017-10-07T00:00
Most of us are told to start up a business doing what we're passionate about.
There's just one problem. We don't know what we are passionate about in the first place. How are we suppose...
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Mental Barriers That Slow You Down (And Derail Your Progress) - Part Two from 2017-10-02T05:30
How many books do you read in a year?
Most people boast about how they read hundreds of books a year. That's what I used to do as well. Until I found that I wasn't really absorbing any ...
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How To Overcome Mental Blocks That Derail Your Progress - Part One from 2017-09-23T00:00
Do you have a bad memory?
Well, so does the memory champion of the US Memory Championships. How's that possible you may ask? But that's exactly the point.
We have misconceptions ...
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How To Avoid Overwhelm (And Systematically Complete Projects) from 2017-09-16T00:00
Whenever you have a deadline, somehow you're able to stagger towards it and get the job done. But other tasks never seem to move forward. You fall behind on your reading, your fun projects, even...
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Three Ways To Write A Stunning Report Overnight from 2017-09-09T00:00
Writing a report for your website can be quite a nightmare
How are you supposed to put 20-30 pages together? And what system should you follow to get great results? That answer is remar...
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Why Selling Strategies to Competition Is A Smart Idea from 2017-08-30T00:00
Competition? That's the enemy isn't it?
Why would you sell or worse, give the competition your ideas? It doesn't seem to make sense at all and yet it's a very solid business strategy—an...
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Passion Projects: How They Can Completely Change Your Business Part Two from 2017-08-26T00:00
Take time off? Doesn't everyone want that?
So how are you supposed to achieve that force of business?
How do you get to downtime? And what about the passion projects you've been ...
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The Five Competing Forces of Business - Part Two from 2017-08-19T00:00
No one thinks running a small business is easy
But even so, there are forces that pull you in all directions.
These five forces almost seem to tear at us as we go through our dai...
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How To Write Enthusiastically (And Why It's Important To Do So) from 2017-08-12T00:00
Articles can be mundane or enthralling. But what makes an article stand out? The short answer is enthusiasm. Yet, it's not easy to know how to create enthusiasm in an article, is it? In this pod...
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Unusual Methods to Find Outstanding Coaches from 2017-08-05T00:00
How do you find a good coach?
We've all done courses that have been a waste of time, money and energy. Yet, finding a great coach isn't easy, is it? There doesn't seem to be any way to ...
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Rerun- How I Write 4000 Word Articles Without Getting Exhausted from 2017-07-29T00:00
The biggest problem with article writing is the exhaustion factor. It's write, delete, write, delete and the endless cycle goes on. So how do you go about article writing? Can you really write a...
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Rerun- The Talent Journey and How to Get There from 2017-07-22T00:00
Why do others seem more talented than we are? Is talent innate? Is it just practice? Or is there something else. Incredibly the key to talent is in the way you define talent. Change the definiti...
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ReRun - How To Deal With Envy In Business from 2017-07-15T00:00
Envy isn't something we talk about, or even to admit to openly. And yet it's the one thing that all of us feel. We feel that others are going places and doing more than us. We even feel we need ...
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ReRun- How To Make the Leap from a Job into Entrepreneurship from 2017-07-08T00:00
The leap may seem physical, but it's mostly mental. In your head you don't know if it's the right time to jump into being an entrepreneur. What about the mortgage, the family and the bills? And ...
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ReRun - How To Name Your Information Product from 2017-07-01T00:00
Trying to come up with a suitable name for your book or info-product seems like a nightmare. What if you're wrong? What if the name isn't well received? However, there's a way to make your book ...
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ReRun - Why Kicking Angels Help Create Momentum in Business from 2017-06-24T00:00
Most of us know of the concept of the "guardian angel". They come into our lives and they take care of us. The "kicking angel" is quite different. The angel shows up just to push us over the edg...
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Info-product Creation Part 2: Double Your Sales With Versions and Satellite Products from 2017-06-17T00:00
Can you really double your sales of a product you've created a while ago?
And why are satellite products so very useful to clients and profitable to your info-product business? In this ...
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Info-product Creation Part 1: When to Leave The Clients Out (And When to Include Them In) from 2017-06-11T00:00
When creating an information product is the client important?
It might seem that a client is extremely important when creating an information product. After all, you're getting them to ...
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How to Make Your Uniqueness Stick In The Client's Brain-Part 2 from 2017-06-03T03:30:39
When you create your business, product or service uniqueness, do you need to test it?
Incredible as it seems there's little point in doing any testing at all.
In this episode yo...
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How To Quickly Create Your Uniqueness from 2017-05-27T00:00
How do you position your products and services?
Finding your uniqueness is incredibly difficult, yet some companies do it consistently well. How do you learn from their ability to posit...
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How Giveaways Increase Sales of InfoProducts from 2017-05-20T18:38:05
Information product sales don't always increase with promotions alone
Often they increase by giving away content that you could easily sell.
But shouldn't you stick to giving awa...
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How To Achieve A Lot (Even As You Switch Tasks All Day) from 2017-05-12T06:20:35
How do you maintain a high productivity level when switching tasks?
How do you get the brain and body to handle the transition?
And how do you manage the transitions with a minim...
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Validating Your Idea: How To Beat Analysis-Paralysis from 2017-05-03T22:34:20
Even if you have the best business idea in the world, analysis-paralysis can stop you in your tracks
You feel frozen, not sure what to do. So you research. Then you do some more researc...
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How To Validate Your Idea (And Overcome Self-Doubt) - Part One from 2017-04-29T07:30:11
How do you know whether your business idea is good or bad?
Is there a system of validation for your info-products, courses and workshops, or do you just go with the wisdom of the crowds...
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Why Success Is Hindered By The Lack of the Tolerance Effect from 2017-04-22T00:00
How does tolerance play a role in small business?
It might not seem like tolerance is the root for success, but if you dig deeper, you'll find that small businesses struggle without the...
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How to increase energy (even in the midst of chaos) from 2017-04-15T00:00
"I wasted too much time getting angry".
So said world-famous tennis champion, John McEnroe. McEnroe and arch-rival, Jimmy Connors had similar temperaments on the court. Both were easily...
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When Things Went Wrong at Psychotactics (And What We Learned From Our Mistakes) from 2017-04-08T18:05:07
In a small business, strategy and tactics often go wrong.
Yet all you hear about is success, success and how someone made it big.
This episode is about some bad judgment calls an...
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Outlining Your Book: Three Crucial Steps from 2017-04-01T04:49:13
When you sit down to write a book you and I can waste a lot of time, if we don't take time to outline
But what are the elements involved in outlining? And how can we make sure we don't ...
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Landing Pages: Why We Fail to Attract the Right Clients from 2017-03-25T07:55:39
Why do some landing pages work while others fail? The core of a landing page lies in picking a target profile. Yet, it's incredibly easy to mix up a target profile with a target audience. And wo...
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How To Speed Up Learning with Deconstruction from 2017-03-18T00:00
Why do great inventors, business people, and a ton of smart people have in common?
They have many traits, but one specific trait is the ability to crack a problem. When everyone else ha...
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How To Slow Down (Without Losing Momentum) from 2017-03-11T00:00
The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere
This is an elaboration/review of the book by Pico Iyer.
How do you slow down? What do you mean by going nowhere? And how can we...
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The Insider Story of Psychotactics: Working With A Partner/Spouse-Part Two from 2017-03-04T00:00
Part 2 of how working with a partner can be both an upside as well as a downside. How do you cope? How do you take it to a whole new level, without all the drama that goes with partnerships? Fin...
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The Insider Story of Psychotactics (Working With A Partner)-Part One from 2017-02-25T00:00
How easy is it to work with your spouse or partner? What are the upsides and downsides? These are questions that are asked all the time and there's a good way to know if you're going to work wel...
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What I Learned in 2016—And How It Made Me Calmer As A Result from 2017-02-18T00:00
Everyone loves a fabulous year, but the best years for us are those that aren't terribly great. We learn more, and go through a revolution in such "difficult" years. That was 2016 for me. Life t...
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How To Get Smart (And Stay Smart) from 2017-02-11T00:00
Many of us believe that smartness comes from learning the skills in our own field. And yet, that's only partially true. We can never be as smart as we want to be, if we only have tunnel vision. ...
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[Re-Release]: How To Write A Sales Page From The Bottom Up from 2017-02-04T00:00
Did you know that landing pages fail almost at the headline stage?
We’re all told to create landing pages. So why do they fail?
The answer, it seems, can be found at any internatio...
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[Re-release] Why Persevere Even When Failure is Certain (And When Not To) from 2017-01-28T00:00
It might seem like perseverance is a good thing. We've been told to persist in the face of odds. Yet, there are times when you should stop.
How do you know when to stop? And why bother to...
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[Re-Release]The Resistance Game Part One - Can Resistance be Beaten from 2017-01-13T23:00
Resistance seems like an overbearing force in our lives
We want to achieve a lot, but as soon as we get started, resistance kicks in. But did you know there are ways around resistance? Listen
[Re-Release] Good to Great - How To Take Your Small Business To Greatness from 2017-01-06T23:00
There are two options in life: greatness or mediocrity. But greatness seems so elusive, even so pompous. How do you call your work “great”?
How do you even know or benchmark “greatness?”.<...
[Re-Release] How Gentle Productivity Gets Astounding Results from 2016-12-30T23:00
Whenever you run into tips on productivity it’s always this earth shaking advice
You’re advised to make these monumental changes to improve your business or life. In reality all you need ...
Listen
[Re-Release] Risk - How To Overcome The Hesitation Factor from 2016-12-23T23:00
If you were to boil down marketing to a single word, it would be “risk”.
When a client is ready to buy they still hesitate. Even when there’s a sense of urgency on their part, they still ...
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[Re-Release] Teacher vs Preacher - Why Learning a New Skill is So Difficult from 2016-12-16T23:00
Why do we learn so slowly? Is it because we’re not good learners?
Is it age? Or is it something quite different? The problem of learning (and teaching) is dependent on the concept of Teac...
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How To Get Stunning Names For Your Information Products and Courses from 2016-12-09T23:00
Trying to come up with a suitable name for your book or info-product seems like a nightmare
What if you’re wrong? What if the name isn’t well received?
However, there’s a way to ...
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Rapid Talent (How To Get There and What Holds Us Back) from 2016-11-25T23:00
Why do others seem more talented than we are?
Is talent innate? Is it just practice? Or is there something else.
Incredibly the key to talent ...
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How To Instantly Get Your Readers Attention-The First Fifty Words from 2016-11-24T20:12:32
Which is the most frustrating part of an article?
Yes, it’s the First Fifty Words. We get so stuck at the starting point when writing an article, that it’s almost impossible to go ahead...
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How To Get $2500 Worth of Goodies (Absolutely Free) from 2016-11-11T21:28:31
What links thousand year old organisations with a bike company like Harley Davidson?
What do football teams have in connection with businesses owners that ca...
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How To Fight Envy (And Stay Motivated Instead) from 2016-11-09T04:23:09
Envy isn’t something we talk about, or even admit to openly.
And yet it’s the one thing that all of us feel. We feel that others are going places and doing more than us. We even feel we...
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How To Write Intensely Curious Headlines—Even If A Deadline Is Looming from 2016-11-02T03:42:37
How do you write intensely curious headlines—even if a deadline is looming.
When writing headlines, you often get stuck.
Can grammar come to the rescue when under pressure?
How To Create A Superpower That Instantly Attracts Clients from 2016-10-21T19:59:40
Imagine a client walked through the door and you could give them the power of X-ray vision. Would that client come back for more superpowers? Of course she would. So how do you create superpower...
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Why AirBNB Struggled To Get Off The Ground (And How The "Biggest Problem" Helped Them Take Off Finally). from 2016-10-21T19:05:34
AirBNB was struggling? Was it just start up problems or was it something else? Find out how AirBNB, Zappos and other now-famous brands had to dig, or even stumble upon the biggest problem before...
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Part One- How To Stand Out When The Competition Is Already Outstanding from 2016-10-08T00:00
If there's little or no competition, it's easy to be top dog. But what if there's oodles of competition? And what if the competition isn't just average, but utterly outstanding? What do you do t...
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How Kicking Angels Help To Jumpstart Your Business from 2016-10-01T00:00
Most of us know of the concept of the “guardian angel”
They come into our lives and they take care of us. The “kicking angel” is quite different. The angel shows up just to push us over...
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How To Write Extremely Detailed Articles Without Getting Exhausted from 2016-09-25T04:16:59
The moment we sit down to write an article, we need to do a fair amount of research.
Case studies, stories, they’re all needed to create a solid article. Yet that very research causes u...
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How I Write 4000 Word Articles Without Getting Exhausted - Part One from 2016-09-25T04:16:39
The biggest problem with article writing is the exhaustion factor
It’s write, delete, write, delete and the endless cycle goes on. So how do you go about article writing? Can you really...
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How To Make The Leap From A Job To A Business - Part Two from 2016-09-17T00:00
Having a vision is hard enough, but where most plans go off track is we scramble after every possible target. To keep our focus we have to have a hatchet person. But what is the role of the hatc...
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How To Make The Mental Leap From a Job into Entrepreneurship - Part One from 2016-09-09T19:07:10
The leap may seem physical, but it's mostly mental. In your head you don't know if it's the right time to jump into being an entrepreneur. What about the mortgage, the family and the bills? And ...
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The Unlikely Bestseller (And Why It Sold 2 Million Copies) - Part Two from 2016-09-08T09:57:03
So Kathy Sierra and her husband have a bestseller on their hands but we've only seen two of the ideas being explained. What is the third, if slightly confusing idea? Here's Part 2.
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The Unlikely Bestseller (And Why It Sold 2 Million Copies) - Part One from 2016-09-08T09:52:27
When Kathy Sierra sat down to write her book on JAVA, it wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller.
They had incredible odds with over 16,000 other books on JAVA already on Amazon. And yet the...
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How To Write A Sales Page Using The Bottom-Up Method from 2016-08-26T05:04:19
Writing a sales page can be a real drag
You start, stop, start and stop. But is it possible that you’re writing a sales page in an inefficient way?
What if you started writing th...
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What I Learned On My Super-Unusual Vacation from 2016-08-13T00:00
Food, drink and sleep. That's my dream for every vacation. And yet this trip to Goa, India was quite the opposite. So what did I learn that almost turned my life around? That's what this podcast...
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[Re-Release] Why Doug Hitchcock's Unusual Goal-Setting Plan Will Help You Get Rid of Chaos from 2016-08-06T00:00
Who's Doug Hitchcock? And in a world full of goal-setting exercises, why does Doug's system stand out? Find out why most goal-setting goes hopelessly off the mark and Doug's plan works almost li...
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[Re-Release] Three Myths That Can Destroy Your Sanity (And How To Avoid Falling in a Trap) from 2016-07-30T00:00
What's wrong with this statement? Instead of wondering when our next vacation is we should set up a life we don't need to escape from.? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong, is there? And yet...
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#[Re-Release] How To Make Products and Services Incredibly Irresistible to Your Client from 2016-07-23T00:00
How do you make your product or service irresistible? With tens of thousands of similar products or services in the market, can you use simple techniques to create a great offer? This episode sh...
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[Re-Release] How to use a simple "Pebble System" to write amazing sales pages from 2016-07-16T00:00
What's wrong with this statement? Instead of wondering when our next vacation is we should set up a life we don't need to escape from.? There doesn't seem to be anything wrong, is there? And yet...
Listen
[Re-Release] A Meaning of Life? Or a life of Meaning? from 2016-07-09T00:00
What is the meaning of life? This utterly vast and philosophical question pops into our lives with amazing frequency. But is it the right question to ask? What if we move the words around a bit ...
Listen
[Re-Release] Free vs. Paid Product: Which One Works Better? from 2016-07-02T00:00
When you're giving away bonuses, it's easy to believe you don't need to give away your best product or service. The best information always needs to be sold—so you can earn a decent living. And ...
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Article Writing Advice Writers Don't Want To Hear from 2016-06-25T09:35:24
When you start writing articles, you get advice from all sides. But there's advice you don't want to hear. It's advice that goes against the grain. And yet, it's this advice that forms the hallm...
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How To Create A Profitable Product (Three Core Questions) from 2016-06-17T05:45:36
We all want to create profitable products but aren't sure where to start. We hope for some amazing formula, when all you really need are three core questions. When you are clear about the answer...
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Three Disaster Stories (And How We Recovered and Soldiered On) from 2016-06-12T05:45:55
It's super-easy to tell stories of success and how everything went from good to great. But what about the events when you had to eat humble pie?
Or the times when you were sc...
The 17 Question Testimonial: How To Ensure You Get an Amazing Client Response from 2016-06-04T20:03:56
17 questions? Why have 17 questions in a testimonial?
And what if the client won’t answer the questions?
The reason for the 17 question testimonial is simple. It’s not a testimoni...
How Gentle Productivity Gets Astounding Results from 2016-05-28T00:00
Whenever you run into tips on productivity it’s always this earth shaking advice
You’re advised to make these monumental changes to improve your business or life. In reality all you nee...
Listen
How To Avoid Painful Clients (And Find Amazing Ones Instead) from 2016-05-20T17:41:15
There seem to be two sets of clients: really painful ones and amazing
It’s the painful ones that seem to drain an enormous amount of energy and time. They’re the ones that you constantl...
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Why Clients Dropout From Courses (And How To Avoid The Dropout Curse) from 2016-05-13T18:21:17
In an interview with Tim Ferris, marketer, Seth Godin says that 97% clients drop out from his online courses. And under good conditions, 80% drop out. Yet there's are three core reasons why clie...
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The Myths of Pricing - Part Two from 2016-05-07T21:43:54
Should you lower your prices?
In Part 1 of Persistent Myths of Pricing (And How To Overcome Them), we looked at Myth 1: Ending prices with 7 or 9 (e.g. $97 or $99 instead of $100) Now, ...
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The Myths of Pricing - Part One from 2016-04-30T05:21:56
When you’re giving away bonuses, it’s easy to believe you don’t need to give away your best product or service.
The best information always needs to be sold—so you can earn a decent liv...
Listen
Why Persevere Even When Failure is Certain (And When Not To) from 2016-04-23T00:00
It might seem like perseverance is a good thing.
We’ve been told to persist in the face of odds. Yet, there are times when you should stop.
How do you know when to stop? And why ...
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Why Inspiration Can Be The Key To Winning The Resistance Game - Part Three from 2016-04-16T00:00
Where do we draw inspiration from?
When we try to beat resistance, we tend to look at what wehaven’t done and what needs doing. Yet sometimes resistance can bepushed over with a simple ...
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How To Beat Inertia And Why Logic Doesn't Work: The Resistance Game - Part Two from 2016-04-09T00:00
Is resistance a game? It can feel a bit like that when you're almost always on the losing team. But often the reason why we lose to resistance is because we don't realise how the brain works. An...
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The Resistance Game: Can Resistance be Beaten? - Part One from 2016-04-02T00:00
Resistance seems like an overbearing force in our lives
We want to achieve a lot, but as soon as we get started, resistance kicks in. But did you know there are ways around resistance?<...
Listen
Feedback: The Secret of How To Get Clients To Keep Coming Back Repeatedly - Part Two from 2016-03-29T00:00
When it comes to feedback, almost of us hit a blank wall. Ask a client to "help you fix" your product or service and you get two or three small suggestions. So how about a 1500 word answer inste...
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The Secret of How To Get Clients To Keep Coming Back Repeatedly - Part One from 2016-03-26T00:00
Most of us are like crazy chickens, focused solely on attraction and conversion. They fail to see the biggest resource in our business—returning clients. If you're able to keep your existing cli...
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Biggest Landing Page Mistake And How To Fix It - Part Two from 2016-03-19T00:00
What’s one of the biggest “rookie mistakes” when putting a landing page together?
It’s the rookie, sitting down and writing the entire page at their desk. If you want a reasonably borin...
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How To Design A Successful Sequential Landing Page - Part One from 2016-03-16T04:41:25
Did you know that landing pages fail almost at the headline stage?
We’re all told to create landing pages. So why do they fail?
The answer, it seems, can be found at any interna...
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[Re-edit] Three Interesting Things I Know About Writing - Part Two from 2016-03-08T06:05:54
Why do we struggle to write?
The ONE word? What’s that? And why does it play such an incredibly important part in article writing? That’s what we explore in this second part of what I’v...
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[Re-edit] Three Interesting Things I Know About Writing - Part One from 2016-03-07T07:11:19
Writing isn't easy-but it isn't hard either
The key to writing is to know what strategy to follow, so the road isn't bumpy all year long. This episode isn't about going down memory lane. ...
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The Untold Backstory of Psychotactics Courses and Products from 2016-02-27T00:00
Whenever you hear the story of products and services, it’s always a sugar-coated, goody gum drop story. You rarely get to hear the not-so-great side of things; the mistakes; the second-guessing....
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Why Clients Hesitate Like Crazy - Part Two from 2016-02-20T00:00
Risk doesn't just come in one flavour, yet The Brain Audit takes away a ton of that risk. In this second episode on risk, we take a forensic look at what happens when you release a new version o...
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The Risk Syndrome: Why Clients Hesitate (And How To Overcome the Hesitation) - Part One from 2016-02-12T22:03:34
If you were to boil down marketing to a single word, it would be "risk". When a client is ready to buy they still hesitate. Even when there's a sense of urgency on their part, they still go thro...
Listen
Good to Great: How To Escalate The Path To Greatness - Part Two from 2016-02-07T00:00
When Jim Collins wrote "Good To Great", he did talk a fair bit about the Hedgehog Principle. But what he stresses more on, is quite another concept called "Preserving the Core and Stimulating Pr...
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Good to Great: How To Take Your Small Business To Greatness - Part One from 2016-01-30T08:52:35
There are two options in life: greatness or mediocrity. But greatness seems so elusive, even so pompous. How do you call your work "great"? How do you even know or benchmark "greatness?". And ca...
Listen
[Re-release] How to Stop Clients In Their Tracks With Riveting Business Storytelling from 2016-01-24T00:00
Storytelling has a lot of guidelines and rules. Yet, some of the critical elements slip under the radar. You don't realise storytelling elements and secrets that are hiding in plain sight. And s...
Listen
[Re-Release] How To Create Incredibly Magnetic Reports—And Attract Truckloads of Clients from 2016-01-16T23:00
When your client picks up your report, can you guarantee they'll read it from start to finish? No matter how good the content, there are precise elements that cause a client to completely consum...
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[Re-Release] Why Happiness Eludes Us: 3 Obstacles That We Need To Overcome from 2016-01-09T23:00
The Three-Month Vacation, that's one of the things that make me really happy. But what else is required to keep that happiness level up? The key lies in identifying the obstacles. When we remove...
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[Re-Release]: How To Acquire Talent in Fewer Than 1000 Hours (And Why The 10,000 Hour Principle Falls Apart) from 2016-01-02T23:00
Is the 10,000 hours principle true? And if it's true, what are your chances of success? And what are the biggest flaw? How do you take the concept of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hours story (He to...
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The Psychotactics Story: Why We Stopped The Hugely Profitable Protege Program - Part Two from 2015-12-27T23:00
Imagine you had a program that generated over $150,000 a year. Let's also imagine that this program always had a waiting list and that clients loved it. Would you stop the program, or let it run...
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The Psychotactics Story: The Craziness of The Very First US Workshop - Part One from 2015-12-26T23:00
Imagine being a hostage at your own workshop! Imagine not having access to your own venue; having to take permission from someone else just to conduct your event. This is the crazy story of the ...
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How To Stop Sounding Unprofessional When Speaking (An End to"Ums" and "Ahs" in 15 Minutes) from 2015-12-19T23:00
When you're speaking to a client or presenting your product or service, do you have a ton of "ums" and "ahs"? Do you find it frustrating, but don't know how to get rid of that irritation? And if...
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How "Doug Hitchcock's" Goal Setting Worked Wonders—And Why We Successfully Use It Year After Year from 2015-12-11T12:00
Who's Doug Hitchcock? And in a world full of goal-setting exercises, why does Doug's system stand out? Find out why most goal-setting goes hopelessly off the mark and Doug's plan works almost li...
Listen
Three Incredibly Silly Business Myths (And Why They're Driving Us Crazy) from 2015-12-05T23:00
What's wrong with this statement?
Instead of wondering when our next vacation is we should set up a life we don't need to escape from.?
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong, is t...
The Irresistibility Factor: A Complete Summary from 2015-11-29T23:00
In the last three episodes we considered what makes a product or service irresistible. In this episode we tidy up things with a complete summary. Hooray!
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How A 5-Step Pre-Sell Creates Irresistibility- Part Three from 2015-11-28T23:00
When you're so focused on a sales page, it's easy to forget that that sales page/landing page is just one tiny step in the whole sequence. There's a sequence that precedes the landing page. Most...
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The Twin-Irresistibility Factor: How To Create Exclusivity - Part Two from 2015-11-21T23:00
When we think of exclusivity, we often see sales pages that seem to have these ticking clocks. They're creating urgency by forcing our hand. And as small business owners, we often buy into that ...
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How To Make Your Product/Service Irresistible (Using Buffet or Specialty Techniques) - Part One from 2015-11-13T17:41:22
How do you make your product or service irresistible? With tens of thousands of similar products or services in the market, can you use simple techniques to create a great offer? This episode sh...
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Re-Release-How To Avoid Blindspots In Your Business: The Rip Van Winkle Effect from 2015-11-09T19:07:24
Success is good. Focus is good. Until it’s bad.
Incredible as it may seem, focus can cause a massive blindspot in our business.
So what’s the option? Surely it can’t be distracti...
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[Re-Release]: Is The Four-Hour Work Week A Waste Of Time? from 2015-10-30T18:28:33
There’s a difference between the “four-hour work week” and magic. You can create revenue in a short week. You can’t create magic.Magic is what we all want to create with our work. Most of us lov...
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How To Use The Pebble System To Create Extremely Focused Sales Pages from 2015-10-25T00:00
When we sit down to write a landing page, we usually have a ton of confusion in our heads. We have so many elements on that landing page. What should we put first? What should we leave out? The ...
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Preacher or Teacher? Why Our Clients Struggle To Learn Skills Quickly from 2015-10-18T00:00
Why do we learn so slowly? Is it because we're not good learners? Is it age? Or is it something quite different? The problem of learning (and teaching) is dependent on the concept of Teacher vs ...
Listen
Why Free Products Need To Be Better Than Paid Products or Services from 2015-10-09T20:46:05
When you're giving away bonuses, it's easy to believe you don't need to give away your best product or service. The best information always needs to be sold—so you can earn a decent living. And ...
Listen
What Does It Take To Be Super-Human? A Deep Dive Into The Reality of Business from 2015-10-04T00:00
Starting up is always rough—and especially when you're a small business that at first has no clients and no credibility. In this episode, 5000bc member, Christopher Cook talks to Sean D'Souza ab...
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The Meaning Of Life? Or A Life of Meaning? How To Solve This Eternal Problem from 2015-09-24T17:38:14
What is the meaning of life? This utterly vast and philosophical question pops into our lives with amazing frequency. But is it the right question to ask? What if we move the words around a bit ...
Listen
The Star Trek Method—And Other Ways To Get Over Article-Writing Barriers from 2015-09-20T00:00
The reason why we find writing to be such a tedious task, is because we don't understand the barriers that get in our way. Instead, we write, edit, write, edit — and drive ourselves crazy. One o...
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Why Stories Are Less Effective Without Catalysts from 2015-09-15T06:11:52
Storytelling struggles without a catalyst. And yet a catalyst doesn't have to be in your face. It can be quiet, almost introspective. So how do you create powerful catalysts for your stories? An...
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Time-Crunching Software: How To Save Enormous Amounts of Time At Work from 2015-09-06T17:25:49
No matter where you go, you run into people with the same problem?time. Whether you're a small business owner, or run a big company, it's all about time, and getting things done. A lot of time s...
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Three Unknown Secrets of Riveting Storytelling from 2015-08-27T17:31:37
Storytelling has a lot of guidelines and rules. Yet, some of the critical elements slip under the radar. You don't realise storytelling elements and secrets that are hiding in plain sight. And s...
Listen
How To Double Your Writing Speed (And Overcome The Outline-Barrier from 2015-08-24T01:03:56
When you're writing articles, it's easy to get locked into the mistake of simply starting up the article. That's a mistake—a big mistake. Outlining is what counts most of all, and yet outlines a...
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Deconstructing Why Bad Habits Succeed (And Good Habits Fail) from 2015-08-17T00:00
It's easy to pick up bad habits. Knowing what causes bad habits to succeed enables you to make good habits meet with similar success. In this episode we dig deep i...
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The "Next Step" Mystery: ThreeSuccessful Ways To Creating The Next Step Using Articles from 2015-08-10T00:00
Haven't you visited a web site and left shortly after reading an article? Why did the site fail to get you to sign up? Or why didn't you buy a product or service? ...
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Accelerated Learning: How To Incredibly Speed Up Your Skill Acquisition from 2015-08-03T00:00
How do you dramatically increase your rate of learning? And why do we get stuck when we're trying to learn a new skill? Strangely the concept of boxes comes into play. We move from beginner to a...
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How Long Do You Work on Vacation? from 2015-07-23T17:45:54
How many hours do you work on vacation? You don't. But then what about the e-mails? How do you deal with clients? Are you supposed to just close down your business...
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The Early Years-Psychotactics-Moving to New Zealand from 2015-07-20T04:33:42
How did you get to New Zealand? That's the question I get most of all from clients. And there's a story, a very interesting story behind our move from India to New Zealand. Here it is?and with s...
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How To Get Better, Higher-Paying Clients With Testimonials from 2015-07-15T22:58:16
How do you avoid losers as clients? How do you completely sidestep the clients that don't pay, cause trouble and push you around? Surprisingly, the answer lies in ...
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How To Build A Cult-Like Following By Using An Adjective In Your Branding from 2015-07-06T00:00
Is it really easy to build a cult-like following for your brand? Yes, but the core of that branding lies in the "adjective". Yes, that very same grammar lesson you...
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How We Sold $20,000 On Stage (In Under An Hour) from 2015-07-01T00:00
Imagine you got on stage and you had an eager audience ready to buy. Of course there are a few obstacles. The first obstacle is that you have just an hour to convi...
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Why Identity Helps You Surge Ahead In Work (And Life) from 2015-06-29T00:00
We're all pounded with the whole concept of success. We think that it means more money, more fame, more power. And yet when confronted with defining our own succes...
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The Secret To Getting Your Report Read (From Start To Finish) from 2015-06-22T00:00
When your client picks up your report, can you guarantee they'll read it from start to finish? No matter how good the content, there are precise elements that caus...
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[Re-release]: The Power of Enough from 2015-06-15T00:00
How much is enough? And where do you stop? It's easy to get all wrapped up in this whole concept of passive income and how smart it seems. Yet, you can work yourself crazy if you're not careful....
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How To Plan An Ideal Vacation—And Avoid "Re-Entry Burnout" from 2015-06-08T00:00
Vacations are like a project. There's a before-vacation and an after-vacation period that needs to be carefully managed. After years of taking vacations?and that t...
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The Crazy, Amazing Trip From FREE to FEE from 2015-06-01T00:00
Is FREE worth it? Or should everything be paid for? How does a person go from free to fee? And how do you stand out in a world where so much is free? There's a sim...
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How To Save Two Zillion Hours in Research (Using Cool Techniques with Evernote) from 2015-05-25T00:00
How much time does it take to do research? Yup, those zillions of hours go down the drain and get us exhausted.
And that's because we go about doing research the "wrong way".
Most ...
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How Success Causes A Blind Spot (And Creates A Rip Van Winkle Effect) from 2015-05-18T00:00
Success is good. Focus is good. Until it's bad. Incredible as it may seem, focus can cause a massive blindspot in our business. So what's the option? Surely it can't be distraction? Actually it'...
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Why "Infotainment" Creates Binge-Consumption in Readers and Listeners from 2015-05-11T00:00
What makes one presentation far superior than the next? What makes you want to binge-listen to some podcasts and just reject the others? What makes one book so readable while the other one is bo...
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How To Avoid Boring Testimonials (And Get 1000-1500 Word Stories Instead) from 2015-05-04T00:00
We ask for testimonials and we get them, but are they any good? Or are they the usual sugary stuff that no one really reads. How do you get testimonials that are "journeys" and weigh in at 800-1...
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How To Smother Perfectionism—With A Timer! from 2015-04-29T00:00
You've told yourself you shouldn't be a perfectionist. Yet time and time again we head back to getting things done—perfectly. And in the process we get nothing done. I get into that trap a lot, ...
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Three Incredibly Precise Steps To Get "Advance Testimonials" From Clients from 2015-04-26T22:00
Most of us wait until a job is completed to ask for testimonials. Admittedly that's a good time, but it's also much harder to get a testimonial from a client at tha...
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Why "Anti-Fragility" Breeds Success (And How Nature Focuses On It) from 2015-04-22T17:18:07
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It's easy to just want praise, but that's not how nature works. Nature roots out the fragile and keep only that which is anti-fragile. So is anti-fragility just a fac...
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Is "How-NOT-To" More Powerful Than How To? from 2015-04-17T23:02:53
When we're writing a book, creating a workshop or giving a presentation, we go hurtling down the path of HOW-TO. Except it seems that HOW-To is only part of the picture. We're missing out on a c...
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How To Prevent Competitors From Copying Your System from 2015-04-06T22:25:06
When you have a product or course online it seems it's easy for competitors to copy it. Yet, being in online marketing isn't the only place things can be copied. The fashion industry, for one ha...
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Sales Pages?The Problem With The First Few Paragraphs from 2015-03-28T22:22:45
Most of us make a fundamental mistake when dealing with the first few paragraphs. We put too many problems in, right away. And it's a mistake. A big mistake! It's like an air traffic controller ...
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The Safe Zone-How To Dramatically Improve Your Courses from 2015-03-26T00:38:22
Whether you conduct online courses or workshops, there's something we fail to consider. It's called the Safe Zone. If we just want to play Internet guru, we don't care if the clients can actuall...
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How To Use The "Problem" To Get Attention (Without Being Negative) from 2015-03-20T16:15:51
Most of us use benefits or solutions when presenting our products or services?and not the problem. So why bother with the problem? Will it actually improve the conversion on our sales pages? Wil...
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The Amazing Power of the Challenge (And How To Fire Up Your Audience) from 2015-03-16T22:08:56
When you're making a presentation, how do you fire up your audience? There are many ways to get that Powerpoint or Keynote presentation going. But one of the most effective ways is to issue a ch...
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Three Obstacles To Happiness (And How To Overcome Them) from 2015-03-12T02:58:42
The Three-Month Vacation, that's one of the things that make me really happy. But what else is required to keep that happiness level up? The key lies in identifying the obstacles. When we remove...
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How To Get Ideas When Writing Articles from 2015-03-06T03:06:26
It might seem that it's impossible to get ideas for your articles. And it is. You go completely blank. Of course, there's a reason for all this blankness. And just as you can go blank, you have ...
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What's the Opposite of Success? It's Not Failure! from 2015-03-02T16:17:22
We are prone to think that the opposite of success is failure. And it's not. It's decay. The opposite of moving forward, isn't standing still. It's decay. Like a pool of water that gets stagnant...
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Book Recommendation: The Talent Code from 2015-02-27T19:28:48
Why did we have so many great artists, painters and sculptors in the Renaissance? Why does Brazil produce so many great soccer players? Is slow learning better than fast? Learn more by reading "...
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[Re-Edit]: Two Precise Steps To Getting Attention from 2015-02-26T02:46:42
If you're struggling to get attention on your website or when you meet a client, it's because you're not using two core factors: novelty and consequences. When you use these two concepts back to...
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The Number One Deal Killer (When Making A Sale) from 2015-02-23T04:08:47
We often wonder why the sale gets killed. Why the customer walks away. Sometimes it's because we're doing a lousy presentation. Or we forget the facts. But often, we get everything perfectly rig...
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Why We Sell Less: The Root of Confidence from 2015-02-18T22:21:35
The hardest thing in business?or life is the factor of confidence. Whether you're in online marketing, selling products or services, or run a physical store, the confidence goes up and down. And...
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The Secret Ingredient To Writing from 2015-02-18T00:00
It may seem like article writing is very hard. And it is. Good writing needs structure, it needs skill and it needs one more thing: input. Without input, nothing happens. So where do we get this...
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How To Get Expertise In A Lot Fewer Than 10,000 Hours from 2015-02-16T02:12:22
Is the 10,000 hours principle true? And if it's true, what are your chances of success? And what are the biggest flaw? How do you take the concept of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hours story (He to...
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The 70% Principle: Why It Knocks Procrastination Out of the Ball Park from 2015-02-10T22:52:15
If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right. You can always come back to do the 20% later. Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn’t wrong.
If you’re going to build a website, a ...
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How To Win Over Skeptical Clients (In Three Quick Steps) from 2015-02-08T23:03:06
Clients aren't always keen to accept our ideas?no matter how brilliant or workable. And we have the same problem with product or services. The resistance is much too high and we struggle to get ...
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How To Slow Down (Even In The Midst of Chaos) from 2015-02-08T20:07:37
For most of us life is about work, work and more work. And no matter whether you have a small business, are in the online marketing space or in consulting, you feel rushed and hassled. This podc...
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The Key To Avoiding Crappy Clients: The Riot Act from 2015-01-30T00:00
Clients can be great?or monsters! And once you have a client who's a monster, it's easy to blame them for all the issues. Often, the problem lies with us. We don't put things in place, in advanc...
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Why You Lose Control in Your Business (And How To Get It Back) from 2015-01-27T00:00
Whether you run an online or offline business, there's a point where the business will take control of you. And then it doesn't let go. All those marketing strategies and "four-hour workweek" fo...
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Getting Things Done: The Trigger from 2015-01-23T00:00
Getting things done isn't as easy as it looks. So what gets in our way when we run our small businesses? Do we simply run out of ideas? The Three Month Vacation Podcast examines how to get out o...
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Why Uniqueness Stories Are Better Than Slogans from 2015-01-13T23:00
When we set about creating a new product or service, we look for a catchphrase. And while a catchphrase or slogan is very useful, it's not a lot of use when it comes to driving home our uniquene...
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How To Succeed (Even In A Crowded Marketplace) from 2015-01-06T23:00
So you're new. No one knows you from a bar of soap. And everything that needs to be said has already been said before. Whether you're in online marketing, health and fitness, or just about any s...
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Strategies vs. Tactics: Which One Is Superior? from 2014-12-26T20:00
When you're a small business, you have what seems like a terrible choice: tactics or strategy. But do you really have to choose? How do online or offline strategies differ from tactics? Can you ...
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Six Steps to Getting Amazing Response From Clients from 2014-12-22T23:00
What's the secret to getting results? Amazingly it's not some online marketing trick or strategy. It's just plain old follow up. But how do you follow up? And how can you have a marketing strate...
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The Bikini Principle: Why It's A Cool Attraction Factor from 2014-12-18T23:00
The bikini concept or bikini principle works on a simple idea. That by giving away 90% of the concept, and keeping 10%, the attraction factor is just as strong, if not twice as strong. And yes, ...
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The Power of Enough—And Why It's Critical To Your Sanity from 2014-12-15T23:00
How much is enough? And where do you stop? It's easy to get all wrapped up in this whole concept of passive income and how smart it seems. Yet, you can work yourself crazy if you're not careful....
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Stories That Cause Clients To Instantly Sit Up And Take Notice - Part Three from 2014-12-11T16:31:02
Should stories be dramatic? Incredibly, the answer is NO. Drama comes from the 90% principle. And this means that your audience needs to know 90% of your story in advance. And that's one of the ...
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Craft Amazing Stories For Business - Part Two from 2014-12-10T03:09:28
Storytelling isn't an art. It's a science. Every kid knows how to tell stories. And it's cute to be a storyteller when you're a kid. But when you put structure to writing and storytelling you ta...
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How To Craft Amazing Stories For Business - Part One from 2014-12-04T04:38:59
Storytelling is a craft that small business owners need to improve their marketing. Without stories, a marketing strategy is like a boat without a rudder. Fact, figures and data can only go so f...
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Create Immense Power With A "True Personality" from 2014-12-04T00:06:27
When you're in marketing, one of the big "marketing strategies" is to appear bigger than you are. Every one in the marketing field or in business is always talking about "six figure" incomes and...
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Unusual Time Management Ideas from 2014-12-03T07:19:33
It's not easy to save time. We all know that. Yet, time management isn't just a factor of getting a fancy to-do list. Sometimes it involves some pretty odd things that you have to do. At Psychot...
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How To Craft A 100-Year Business Plan: The Three-Prong System from 2014-12-02T17:05:31
It's not enough to want to have passive income. You may think it's a smart way to go about things, but in fact, it's pretty shallow. You want to create magic, and to create that magic you need t...
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Is The Four-Hour Work Week A Waste Of Time? from 2014-12-01T05:00
There's a difference between the "four-hour workweek" and magic. You can create revenue in a short week. You can't create magic. Magic is what we all w...
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