July Update – [The Movement Athlete]

By Aga in Startups 0 Comment

 

What a week it has been. I just landed back home from a trip to Berlin – to attend selection days for a Lead – Sports Accelerator.

Needless to say it was intense which is one of the reasons I am just writing this update now.  The event started with pitches and then went on to a speed-dating style interview.

The event started with pitches and then went on to a speed-dating style interview. Over 30 tables, at each table different

the movement athlete company CEO Aga Nazaruk

The Movement Athlete – Founder Aga Nazaruk Pitching

mentors and investors and we had 20min per table. After 20 min we switch and go to the next table. 2 days of just that. My voice gave up at the end and I could hardly talk.

The format although intense has been great in terms of meeting as many folks as possible and getting a fireside-style feedback on what we are doing.

I made some great connections, both potential mentors, advisors, investors and partnerships, and of course friends for life in other startups.

After 2 days the jury out of 40 selected 19 startups that got into the accelerator and will be heading to Berlin from September. But only after 1 month there is a final decision whether you get awarded a small investment (25k for 8% of the company).

The Movement Athlete as top Sports Startups

The Movement Athlete getting into 19 top Startups to enter Lead Sports Accelerator

It is a small amount for where we are at but any money would be great to push the product development.

I will start with main takeaways and lessons learnt and then move onto how it will affect our strategy going forward.

Main takeaways:

  • We are in a great, vastly underserved & growing market and have an opportunity to emerge as an authority if we do it well.
  • Building a strong brand that stands for something, with a worldwide community is the KEY
  • Our brand & a company should be aiming to become a lifestyle brand – tech is just one product we offer and eventually, we will have offline events, clothing brand and maybe even a physical location
  • Part of the vision of building our community is collaborating with trainers and athletes from all over the world to promote the movement and bodyweight disciplines and promote them- these relationships are extremely important and we will be putting systems this month to start nurturing the current ones and developing new ones.
  • Our product needs to be great, easy to use and flow with optimisation for social aspect

On the tech side there was a lot of suggestions. Some of the things which come up over and over again was incorporating video analysis to give folks immediate feedback

FOCUS AREAS FOR NEXT 60 DAYS SPRINT.

Next 3 months our focus needs to be on building a brand, a worldwide movement and a community of folks – athletes, trainers, and average Joes – who believe in what we believe – that moving should not be a chore.

Among many projects planned we are putting a content marketing machine in place, regular email updates to our list and customers, affiliate program, presale, Instagram marketing, new version of the ebook coming out and building relationships with trainers and athletes – from which some of them will join our core team.

Along with that we will be perfecting the product and we want to start the app development mid August. From multiple conversations I had it become obvious that getting the product to the market should be our number 1 priority.

We have been pushing it forward as financially it will be really straining to make it happen.

Nevertheless, we made a decision to do whatever it takes to bring it to the market before Christmas.

The Movement Athlete App coming at the end of the year

The Movement Athlete App coming at the end of the year

To fund it we will do a presale promo to our community which will cover part of the cost. We are also considering equity crowdfunding or taking on a small loan to finish it – but it means that we will have very limited amount of cash to put towards marketing for next few months until the release. We are trying to address this issue but it’s literally the last, most important milestone for us to get through. I know that we can do this.

I am so excited for releasing the product- it still will be an MVP version so won’t include a lot of features we would love to see but one we have that out there – everything gets easier and we can keep on putting money into development. We will aim to have the product redy before Christmas and do a big product launch during that time.

I am extremely grateful for the support of each and every one of you as we are making headways on this journey.

I truly believe we can build something with a global impact and change lives of many people.

How badly do you really want it

By Aga in Inspiration, Lessons Learnt, Startups 0 Comment

I hear so many EXCUSES. Everything from

  • [insert the country you live in] is not good enough
  • I don’t know enough
  • I don’t know how to get started
  • I don’t have money
  • I don’t have a support network.
  • I have a job

And honestly, I think these ones are ok. These are explicit excuses –  You can work with them.

The WORST are those silent ones. Those unconscious. Those not visible, those which DON’T seem like excuses or complaints at all.

I had this amazing conversation with a very smart woman who is telling me how she doesn’t like her job and really wants to quit, but it’s struggling. She loves to travel. For every excuse she has to not to do it ,I am offering a number of solutions.

After a while, there is no more “buts”. She runs out of excuses.

It feels like we hit the wall. Feels like she says she wants to change but doesn’t really. (???)

Like there is some unconscious, or now maybe more conscious, resistance running through her head and showing up right now when all the excuses were smashed.

Here is the thing.

  • Everyone like the idea of living the life they love.
  • Everyone like the idea of growing and being an entrepreneur.
  • Everyone like the idea of traveling and moving every 6 months to see our beautiful planet.
  • Everyone likes the idea of being a millionaire.

 

The problem is 99,99% just don’t want it bad enough

I promise you if you haven’t taken action yet – you don’t have strong enough reasons to pull you where you need to be. 

And there is a chance that you will stay that way, for years. Maybe even forever.

Never taking a chance, never living the live you wont, never taking any risk because the time was not right, and you weren’t ready and this and that….

And those REASONS that will pull you forward don’t magically appear. They don’t come in a form of some insight or a revolution. Sometimes you will need to hit a wall to change but there is an easier way….

IT’s A DECISION YOU NEED TO MAKE 

“Until you really want to change, you won’t, even if deep down you believe you should.

Yet, once your desire shifts, changing your behavior is instant and effortless. If you no longer desire bad food, it’s not hard to “resist” it. Willpower is for people who haven’t made up their minds. Willpower doesn’t work.

If you no longer desire mediocrity, you won’t be mediocre. Herein lies a subtle and disarming truth — everything you have in your life is what you want. If you wanted something different, you’d have something different. As James Allen wrote, your circumstances reveal you.

Own it.

Until you own it, you’ll continue to be delusional. Once you own it, you can begin the process of change.”

So how do you develop something that pulls you so strong that nothing else matters?

1.Extreme Ownership

Before anything, you need to develop an attitude of extreme ownership.

You need to take responsibility for EVERYTHING that is happening to you. No excuses.

2. Vision

Then you need to develop the pull.

And this its easier a strong enough vision for how you want your life to be OR

a strong enough vision for what you will never settle for, what you will never want in your life. It’s the feelings you never want to feel again its things you hate, its thing you refuse to happen.

They need to be vivid, details and solid so when you think about them they CAUSE EMOTION.

3. Repetition

Once you have both – you bring them in front of you EVERY SINGLE DAY. No, not once a month, not just once a year when you are reflecting.

EVERY SINGLE DAY

I am not joking. Consistency is a key here.

Believe me if you won’t – IT Won’t HAPPEN. GUARANTEE. You must KNOW what you know and what you dont WANT. And remind  yourself about it every single day!

Researchers in the USA looked at millionaires and billionaires, examining the differences between the two groups. One fascinating difference was that millionaires looked at their goals once a day and billionaires looked at their goals twice a day! They say ‘it costs nothing to look’, which is generally correct but the reverse is definitely true in this case. If you don’t look, it will cost you! Having a date for your dreams is like giving a student a deadline for an assignment. All the action is last minute,and if you didn’t set a deadline you’d never get it done!

4. Take Chances – Its fun!

Ready to stop being mediocre?

 

Quarterly Review Jan-March 2017

By Aga in Lessons Learnt, Startups, Uncategorized 0 Comment

So first 3 months of the year are gone. Time to reflect, refocus and re-strategize.

I set up some extremely aggressive goals at the beginning of the year. The goals were outcome goals mostly which depends on a lot of things to be in place. I like it that way. I like the challenge.

The game is thought to:

  • set them up in the way that won’t make you overwhelmed
  • If you miss them still managed your mindset around them.

I need to say that actually having delays and not meeting these goals at times brought my energy down, which going forward makes me examine hard how I am setting up my goals and put systems in place that enables me to predict that uncertainty.

One thing I have learnt though is to let go of things that are out of my control. More on that below.

So what did go well (HIGHS)

  • We moved to a beautiful Island of Koh Phangan and iI just absolutely loved it
  • I started off really well. Very focused, applying m morning and night routine, building momentum and discipline to tackle the most challenging parts of the project.
  • We have our first full-time intern coming in January from Europe
  • Had the most amazing mastermind event with a group of incredible people. Transformational as usual.
  • Felt (and feeling) really close with my partner in crime Amar and it has been great having both of us just extremely focused on business
  • Daily meditation and exercise at the beach
  • Keep the nightly reflection

What did not go well

  • Due to many reasons the intern we hired wasn’t a good fit for an ongoing basis
  • We are making quite a bit of regular revenue yet with the app coming I felt like I didn’t not put enough energy into marketing
  • Struggling with hiring the development team especially Angular/ Native Script developer and feeling out of  control in terms of development process and project management
  • Struggling with having tough conversation and making a division between friendship and business
  • Losing momentum for a couple of weeks
  • Recurring feeling of homesickness

IMPROVEMENTS GOING FORWARD

  • bi-weekly content creation
  • Weekly video check-in on the business
  • Weekly financial review ( i did plan them from the beginning of the year and never executed
  • Setting more process goals, aggressive goals with dates but not being attached to dates.

 

 

 

Success Is a Habit – Use this one tool to turn every day into a success and feel great!

By Aga in Inspiration, Lessons Learnt, Startups 0 Comment

I have been telling my friends recently about the little thing me and my few close friends do every day to develop and keep the habit of being successful.  We call it a success thread.

We call it a Success thread

It`s  a simple email thread which we send to each other’s every single day which includes usually 10 things we are grateful for today, 5 successes from previous day and 5 goals we wish to accomplish today.

Success breeds success

Its premise is simple. We are creatures of habits. Research shows that those who participate in a daily routine are 3 times more likely to stay on their program than those who participate 6 days a week and fare 5 times better than those who participate 3,4 or 5 times a week. Therefore for the best results, use your program daily.

Additionally ”like attracts like” and “success breeds success”. The more you feel successful the more success will come your way. You cannot feel successful if you do not look for and acknowledge your successes. The successes can be major or minor it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you acknowledge yourself for whatever you did do.

Do not look for what you did not or did not get done or could have done better. That’s a loser’s way of looking at the world. Look specifically for the progress you made in the arena be it financial, business, health, fitness, relationship, learning, servicing or any other.

So we write everything from big wins eg.

  • I made X sales
  • I had a meeting with investor

to the tiny ones like

  • I watched a movie and relaxed
  • I made a delicious dinner.

Point is – you HAVE to write 5 or more no matter what!

We do it in an intimate group of very close friends. From time to time somebody will through an inspiring quote, scream whop whop and acknowledge others. And it does a few things for us

  • Keep everybody in the loop even if we are not talking directly on what is happening with everybody else’s project.
  • Motivate us and makes us feel good
  • Makes us feel like a successful badgers every single day
  • Pushes us to actually get something done to put on our list

 

Team Success Thread

We tried it also in a team settings and it worked just great. It raises engagement and accountability. For us as founders it was a great way to track our team which was working remotely in a softer manner than we usually do. Everyday everybody share the 3 things

  1. 5 biggest successes
  2. Biggest challenges and how you plan to overcome them. Do you need any help from anybody?
  3. 5 things you plan to accomplish on the next day.

On our weekly meetings we would do the same thing. Celebrate all the successes from the week from each person and review their focus areas for the next week. We loved and our team too. It is a great way to stay in touch and on track with what everybody is doing, keep transparency and keep pulse on all the challenges your team face on the day to day basis.

 

To sum up – the frequency of which I do this exercises is directly correlated with how I feel and how well I tackle every day. There is plenty of research showing that gratitude is one of the biggest factors leading to wellbeing. Starting the day with the positive attitude and knowing that there is so many things I can be grateful for sets the theme for a whole day. Feeling of being successful just naturally makes me successful the following day.  What you focus on Expands.

 

What are your daily habits that are keeping your moods up and make you perform great?

10 lessons in Business and life

By Aga in Inspiration, Lessons Learnt, Startups 0 Comment

The dream of driving your own project, the thrill of creating something, the thought that you can inspire or provide value to others on a bigger scale, that you are doing something meaningful – is what made throw myself into entrepreneurship in the first place. Over last few years I have done and fail a number of project, but the lessons I have learnt are invaluable for anyone who is thinking about setting up your own business. Here are a few of them.

 

Believe in Yourself

So simple and so hard. You might not have all the skills in the world but you need to believe that you will find or create a way no matter what. You need to believe that you have the power to pull resources, work out strategies but all the more believe that you can learn. Its ok to not know – you will learn as you go. Just believe you can make it no matter what.

Develop a Strong Vision

This will drive you. Anytime you will have a down time – come back to it. Feel it, touch it, smell it. It will instantly bring you back on your path. Remember the biggest the why the easier the how.

Do It for the Right Reason

It’s easy to get caught in ideas especially those which promise quick money returns. Make sure you are not chasing just money. Focus on creating the value and the bigger value you will create and deliver to as many people as possible the more money you will make. Financial feasibility is important but make sure that the number are not the only reason you want to make it. I promise you it will make you miserable.

Embrace Confusion

Whatever you want to build there will be lots of confusion going on. Embrace it – you are creating something, and learning. That is why startup environment especially at the beginning its so hectic, we are learning hence the strategies we are applying will be changing according to what we learn.  Every time you are confused – tell yourself this is a good, think – that are the only means you are learning and growing. Push through it and soon you will see the light.

 

Fail you way to success

Get used to it. You will fail. And its not going to be fun, it will be very uncool, people will think things about you, you will not be a cool entrepreneur with cool things. You will be a looser and a winner at the same time. Your learning will help you win. Failing is good unless you are moving forward and learning from it. Fail fast and learn quickly move on to the next idea/project. Use the Customer Development Frameworks and Lean startup up to quickly test your market and your idea and move on. Customer interview can be done in less than a week.

 

Most important, stand up, get yourself sorted and move on. The longer you stay in the fail state the worse it will end up for you.

 

 It will take time – Be patient

I heard a lot of people making money overnight especially in internet marketing space, you hear about entrepreneurs mostly when they are successful and you believe that these things happen instantly. But hardly anybody talks that the 20k in one day was followed by years of learning, experimenting, testing, adapting. Your success will be built on hard work and patience

If you are hyper like me with extreme drive and need for speed – then learning patience will be the hardest and most important thing on your journey. Focus on making progress on a day to day basis. One step at the time and you will get there.

Be persistent

You bet you hear that a lot. But be prepared for that. There will be times when u will be fed up, you will question your ideas your actions and your existence – the usual. You will be sick of where you are, that thing doesn’t seem to make progress etc. This is the moment when you need to push harder and stick with it! That will make you the winner! There will be situations when you will have to make a pivot, or it will be a time to change your strategy, but most of the time stick with it.

 

Build Strong Networks

Nobody is a self-made millionaire. Even if you do not want to be a millionaire and you just want to build a small lifestyle blog or business you need support. And people will want to help you. Find the best in your industry and follow them. Develop a strong network of friends to support you. Get a mentor and a coach to keep you accountable.

 

Be humble/ listen and learn from others

So you have a biz idea, and maybe your business already – now you are a cool kid entrepreneur. Most successful ones listen and are committed to never ending learning and improvement. Be ready to listen and learn especially at the beginning. Listen to your customers; to you team, to your grandma, to people in the bus. Filter but acknowledge. If you can master that you are on the right track.

 

 Trust Your Gut

It comes ith your confidence. I made many mistakes following the advice of other people inspite of trusting my own feelings. No matter what others say look inside yourself and get the answers. Ultimatley you need to learn from others but its your path you need to follow not anybody elses.

 

 Bring on a great team

When the time is right you will want to bring people on board. Make sure every single one is better than you. Enough said.

 

Celebrate all successes.

The smallest ones. Develop a habit of being successful. We practice in our team and with my close friends what we call a success thread. Everyone sends an email everyday with their successes from the previous days/ goals for this day / biggest challenges we face now and what we are grateful for.

If you are successful at small things you will be successful at big things.

 

 

Angel List Syndicates Game-Changer for Start-Up Funding

By Aga in Startups 0 Comment

As the rest of startup community I am really excited about the recent changes and the launch of Angel List Syndicates. It a game changer for Startup funding. Below its a simple rant on what its all about, what changes will it bring and what we can expect! Get ready for the some incredible startups coming up and innovation happening even quicker!

Angel List Syndicates What It Is About

Service allows angel investor to pool resources of other venture capitalists

Come  up with an idea for a technology-based product. There’s smartphone apps, computer hardware and software, digital media devices, and technology-based services that can do just about anything you can think of. Watch security camera at your home from a remote location. Test your blood sugar level or take your blood pressure with a device plugged into your smartphone and send the results directly to your doctor. The possibilities are endless and the hyper-connected tech world is driving innovation and competition among entrepreneurs for new products and services faster than ever.

 

The Challenge of Traditional Start-Up Fund Raising

If you’ve been a player in Silicon Valley for some time, or you work for a large company like Intel or 3M that funds start-up ventures, getting funding to turn an idea into a viable product or service is one hurdle that likely won’t be problem. But for the vast majority of entrepreneurs who develop an idea in their basement or over a cup of coffee and turn those concepts into a formal business plan, a major challenge that can hold a lot of start-ups back is their financial resources to handle research and development, legal costs, and all the other expenses that pile up to get a company off the ground.

 

It wasn’t that long ago that start-ups had to do their own door-to-door shopping to drum up the cash they need from investors to get things started. Or they could hire a venture capital firm to help them do some of the legwork and get in front of potential investors to pitch their idea. One of the biggest drawbacks for this method of fund raising has always been the amount of time it takes to fly from city to city to make your pitch. And for some over-coffee business ideas, even the start-up expenses of trying to raise enough cash to move forward has been prohibitive from some companies. But in the digital age, that way of fund raising to launch a business will soon be taking a back seat to locating angel investors online.


Angel List Announces New Option to Help Fund Star-Ups

The venture capital site AngelList.com has been helping start-up companies find investors to back their ideas for the last few years. But it recently announced an addition to its services that may be a game-changer that reduces the amount of time it takes to raise start-up funds while increasing the amount of money available to get started. Angel List Syndicates allows an angel investor to invite other venture capitalists to add to the pot of money to fund a start-up. Based on the typical agreement, the lead investor can charge a fee for directing additional venture capitalists to invest in a particular start-up, and everyone collects on the investment when the start-up becomes profitable.

It’s not an entirely new idea, but the technology behind Angel List Syndicate capitalizes on the social networks of a lead angel investor. This service makes it far easier to raise a lot of cash for a start-up without the traditional headaches of fund raising. And in it’s infancy, it’s already proved to be a highly successful funding model that could launch the next big tech innovation.

 

Service Makes It Easier to Raise More Cash in Less Time

Author and entrepreneur Tim Ferris, who wrote The Four-Hour Body, recently raised $250,000 in 53 minutes for a start-up company called Shyp.com. This company Ferris helped fund eliminates the need to go to the post office or office supply store to ship a package. Instead, you just take a picture of the item you want to ship, log it online with some basic information, and a short time later a Shyp contractor arrives to package your item and take it to a drop-off location where it will be shipped. Ferris’ investment along with funds from all the other investors who raised a quarter of a million dollars in under an hour will help Shyp expand it’s reach by hiring more people and reinvesting in the business to provide better service and software. And that’s all thanks to Angel List.

 

The concept of Angel List Syndicates helps an investor leverage their existing network of connections to raise more money for a start-up. In a way, it like the global reach your social media accounts have that can turn an ordinary video into a viral phenomenon overnight. Angel List Syndicates allows lead investors to raise more money for the companies they feel most confident about breaking the mold in a crash-and-burn environment and becoming successful, and do it in far less time. It also allows those venture capitalists with smaller amounts of cash for investments to partner with a lead investor on a project they also see as potentially profitable.

 

For southern-California-based venture capitalist Mark Suster, Angel List Syndicates makes it easier to help launch start-ups with the money they need and cash in on the profit when they become successful.

“I can have 40 investors but just one signatory on deals,” says Suster. “I don’t have to chase down tons of individuals. Helpful because if I know that [a lead investor] or others are ‘fronting’ others in a deal I can deal with one person to negotiation in difficult times. Helpful because at the time of rounds we’re not herding cats.”

 

More Funding Resources Good for Entrepreneurs

If you’re an entrepreneur with a big idea, money doesn’t have to hold you back from pursuing your passion. Angel List Syndicates is the perfect environment for start-ups to seek out enough cash to get going without relying on a single investor to back your project. Instead, you can potentially pool enough money to launch your research and development, or expand your existing business to increase profitability with smaller investments from more people. So if you’ve been sitting on a big idea or dream to take your small business to a whole new level, what are you waiting for. The cash you need from investors may be in your hands in a matter of days, not years, with Angel List Syndicates.

 

12 Critical Copywriting Lessons from Mind Valley

By Aga in Growth Hacking, Startups 0 Comment

We are in the process of testing some product ideas in a random hair loss niche ( I will be posting a blog post on the actual process and results very soon).  As a part of it we have been learning a lot about copywriting, what makes a great sales copy but also an email copy.

Let’s face it, we live in a world of information overload. An estimated 294 billion emails are sent every single day. In the United States, about 6 billion text messages are sent by smartphone users every day. There are more than 644 million active websites on the Internet. And every one of these things are vying for our attention, along with thousands of other distractions that make it difficult for any one message to stand out.

But that’s exactly what copywriters need to learn how to do, especially when using email to do things like generate business, sell products, increase traffic, build brand awareness, or anything else that is going to ultimately add to the bottom line.

I am a big fun of MindValley and they have tonnes of incredible information for free at their MindValley Insights Site which you can check out here. Looking for quick actionable information as I started writing my copy i come across this video 12-step process for making the most of email messages you send to promote your business from Mindvalley founder and CEO Vishen Lakhiani .

Here is a run down of these 12 critical lessons which you can apply straight away to create an incredible copy. Also as recommended by Vishen I use it as a checklist for all my copy-writing emails.

1. Know Your Audience

Before you start hammering away at the keyboard to get the message out about your new product, special event, or mind-altering epiphany, make sure you know your audience. If you’re communicating with highly-skilled brain surgeons about a new surgical device for the operating room, you’re going to address them differently than reaching out to skateboarders to highlight a new style of wheels. Before you craft your message, take some time to think like your audience and learn to speak their language.

 

2. Personalize Your Messages

If you’re planning a massive e-mail campaign, you can’t get around the fact that the same message will go out to the thousands on your list. But that doesn’t mean you can’t personalize it, says Lakhiani. Consider writing specific emails for the same campaign, but tailor them to target people with a specific interest, by gender, or by location. And when appropriate, use the recipients first name in the body of your message. Research shows that when you personalize your message, open rates increase. But don’t overdo it. Research also shows that too much personalization decreases open rates.

copywriting1

3. Use Images

It’s kind of a no-brainer these days. If you a media consumer, you’re almost been programmed to expect visual imagery to go with any form of communication. It’s almost expected with blogs and social media. And e-mail readers are no different. They’re more engaged when the text of an email is complemented by visual images. Look for ways to add images that might generate curiosity and encourage readers to click and continue to your website. Vishen said they’ve experimented with this at Mindvalley, and found that emails with text and images perform better than text-only messages.

 

4. Include A Call to Action

Or two, or three, Vishen suggests. Your call to action might be the classic, “Click here, buy now.” But it doesn’t have to be that direct. Even including hyperlinks to articles and resources in your e-mail acts as a kind of call to action that engages the recipient beyond simply reading the text of the message.

 

5. Use a Sign-Off

Listen to a radio broadcast or watch the news on TV, and the reporter will always sign off with a signature statement like: “This is John Doe reporting for Channel 2 News.” And you should use a similar kind of signature sign-off in your e-mails. Don’t just close your email with “Sincerely, Company X.” Vischen recommends signing off as yourself and include your name. It helps the reader develop a better connection with you compared to the generic “Thank you from the customer support team.”

 

6. Revisit the Purpose of Your Message with a P.S. Line

Before you hit the send button, take a minute to include a P.S. line in your email. Don’t make it a long, novel-length letter. Just condense your message into some bite-sized morsel with a link that directs them to a page you want them to visit. It’s one more way to capture the attention of an already-busy reader and engage them in your message.

 

7. Keep E-Mail Subject Lines Short

If you want to improve the open rates of your e-mails, make it a priority to keep your subject lines short. In a recent marketing study, researchers found that shorter subject line messages get higher open rates. Lakhiani recommends keeping subject line messages within the range of 4 to 15 characters. And tantalizing messages like “You’re not alone,” “Check this out,” “A powerful idea (video inside),” can really improve the effectiveness of your email campaigns.

 

8. Make it Personal

Lakhiani suggests approaching your emails from the perspective of talking to a friend. Find ways to make your email message conversational, like you’re telling a friend a story about your weekend or some experience you had. What they don’t need is another form-letter sounding message that will put them to sleep about what makes your company or product so amazing.

 

9. Connect Subjects to Engage More People

In some cases, you’ll be trying to promote or draw attention to more than one thing in your message. Look for ways to connect topics and help the reader make sense of what’s in it for them if for spending the time to read your message. Point out the value they can receive by following through with the calls to action you’ve presented.

 

10. Incorporate Current Events

After you’ve taken some time to understand your audience, you can spice up your email messages by incorporating current events or hot topics important to them. Read the news, trade journals, or industry publications, follow the message boards and feeds that your contacts follow. Then look for ways to mention those hot topics in your message. Lakhiani says this practice plays on the emotions of people who are already interested in those hot topics and captures their attention.

 

11. Be Entertaining

Not many people would consider product warranties or tax code laws interesting to read, so don’t write your email like that. Be entertaining. Lakhiani says adding an element of humor or sarcasm to your emails will improve conversion rates. Do it well, and you’ll train people to look forward to your next email.

 

12. Leave the Door Open

One more way to maximize your email marketing efforts is to leave the door open. Tease your readers with a tidbit of information, but don’t give it to them right away. Using this approach can create curiosity for your product, event, or announcement and keep people on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what will happen next.

E-mail marketing is still alive and well. And if you want to maximize your efforts, incorporate these 12 tips from guru Vishen Lakhiani to make your email messages sizzle.

 

How successful people eat hustle for breakfast

By Aga in Inspiration, Lessons Learnt, Startups 0 Comment

“Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” -Mark Twain

As soon as I wake up and do my morning success routine I feel like a boss. Ready to crash my day I look at me to do list and I decide which tasks I am going to tackle first. Naturally me and most of the people will go after what is easy and will give you an instant gratification.  Whether that is getting through my email list, checking all the possible analytics on my projects and cooking. I will prorastonate with all the things I do not like or I doing them will requitre some time thinking how to actually handle them.

 

Prioritize the Hardest Things First and Tackle It Head On

Mark Twain wisely said, “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning that will probably be the worst thing you do all day.”

In Brian`s Tracy book  Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time the author gives a very simple advice start the day out by doing the things you like least first, you’ll get them out of the way so you can enjoy your day more and be more productive and fulfilled.

 

For entrepreneurs that means asking yourself a question: which thing on your to do list scare you the most?  And literally eating it for breakfast. Making this damn phone call to potential customer, talking to your customers about their problems, following up on this contact., or maybe something totally different. Most important whatever scares you tackle it first thing in the morning.

 

Why would you do that?

Cause you are a hustler and this is just what you do. You are faced with something hard – you do not postpone it – you tackle it. You do not overthink  you do and this action defines you.  Eat That Frog is an excellent read and it challenged me to go into my day with the goal of doing the hardest things first. When I get the most dreaded things out of the way right off the bat, it gives me so much momentum for the rest of the day!

 

There are at least three good reasons for behaving this way:

  1. You’ll get the icky thing done sooner. That ‘looming’ feeling will go away.
  2. You’ll feel good and effective. It takes a strong-willed person, after all, to fill out those ten pages of paperwork before doing some interesting but tangential reading that may or may not be about Doctor Who . . .
  3. You’ll have used your will-power,limited resource that it is, in the most effective way possible. When your will-power resources were at their peak, you used as much as you needed to get through what you needed to do. You have less left now, but that’s okay. You need less for tasks that are more enjoyable.

But getting into the habit of facing those unpleasant or challenging tasks straight away it’s a great habit for any person and aspiring entrepreneur.

Save the Best for Last

Once you’ve accomplished your most dreaded tasks for the day, reward yourself with some of the tasks you enjoy doing. This will give you something to look forward to when you’re in the midst of doing your hard tasks and will probably give you motivation to accomplish them more quickly.

Practical Application

1) Read this great article: Start Your Day By Eating a Frog for some great step-by-step help in prioritizing your day.

2) Determine what you tend to procrastinate on and develop a plan of action for making it a first priority.

3) If you have a chance, check out Eat That Frog: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time from your local library. It’s a quick read and it’s packed with helpful inspiration.