Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Bread for the head

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My mentor, Jim Rohn, used to call knowledge; “bread for the head.”  I love that phrase.

Jim’s message was to invest the money required, to gather the knowledge you need; to feed your mind and become MORE.

  • Read the books.
  • Listen to the audio programs.
  • Attend the seminars.
  • Watch the DVDs.

Why?  Because whenever you look at the people who fail to invest in their education, you find that they are not doing so good.  They are out there right now, wondering when their luck will change.  They are living where they don’t want to live.  They are getting through life, without getting much from life.

How I fed my head

I started out with a few books my older brother gave me.  He took pity on me.  I was broke and living in a violent, slum.  I had no job.  I was sick of being broke and going nowhere.  So, I decided to read the books he gave me.

8 years later, I found myself financially secure for life, aged just 29.  I was married to my beautiful wife and running my own marketing business.  I was waking up each day, just happy to be alive.

To get from broke age 21 to secure for life age 29, I invested thousands in my personal and professional development. I have invested a lot more since then.

Don’t do like Joe & Josephine average

Joe happily invests hundreds on the latest phone each year, but wouldn’t dream of spending the same amount on developing his mind.

Josephine happily invests in her daily skinny latte, during her lunch break from the job she hates, but wouldn’t spend the same amount on feeding her mind so she could get a job she loves.

Feed your mind with the knowledge you need and watch what happens to you in every area of your life.  I’m telling you, the results can be, as in my own case, life changing.

Grow your business with this beautifully simple idea!

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Everything you do or neglect to do, has an impact on your business.

The impact is always positive or negative.  Nothing in business is neutral.  A casual remark, the decision not to attend a meeting, a quick email or social media update  – All of these will impact your business, to a lesser or greater extent.  Everything counts.

Here’s what my mentor, Jim Rohn, used to say:

Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.

Failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. You don’t fail overnight. Instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.

The simple things you do every day are far more likely to influence your eventual outcome, than the less frequent major decisions you apply so much thought to.  Get the basics right and repeat them every day.

So simple.

So magical.

So easy to do.

So easy to ignore.

Remembering Jim Rohn: 1 year on

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It’s exactly 1 year ago today that my mentor, Jim Rohn, passed away.  Jim Rohn was a major influence to me and I will think about him even more today, as I celebrate his life and mourn his passing.  I would like to take this opportunity, to share one of my favourite Jim Rohn quotes with you:

“Don’t wish it was easier; wish you were better. Don’t wish for fewer problems; wish for more skills. Don’t wish for fewer challenges; wish for more wisdom.”

Are you still on target?

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I was listening to some people chatting yesterday, about their New Year’s resolutions.  It seems that just 23 days into the New Year, every one of them had broken their resolutions.  This is not uncommon.  The queue to use the equipment at you local gym will be getting smaller right now, just as the queues at your local Kentucky Fried Chicken get longer!

This got me thinking: How many of us are still on target, with the resolutions and plans we set for our businesses?

The ability to make a good decision, and then see it through, is one of the master skills of business success.

However, as my mentor Jim Rohn used to say, even if people could keep the doctor away by just eating one apple each day, most people wouldn’t!

Why not take a moment to review your business plans and check if you are still on target.  Those plans you made deserve the opportunity to fly.  You need to give them wings, by ensuring you take action to see them through.

By the way: If you need some powerful, motivational help right now, this could be exactly what you need!

Profits are better than wages!

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This is possibly the most valuable information I have given you via this blog!

That’s quite a statement, but I’m about to show you a business model, which you can use in order to secure your financial future.  It’s based on how I earn the vast majority of my income and how every wealthy person I know has secured their future.

My life changed when I heard my mentor, Jim Rohn say;
“Profits are better than wages!”

You see, I thought I owned a business, but I didn’t.  The reality was (and this might sound familiar), that I simply employed myself.  I worked really hard and was making a lot of money – but when I stopped working, the money stopped too.  That’s because I was essentially earning a wage.  It was more like a job than a business!

When I explain this idea to young entrepreneurs, I put it like this:

If Bob relies on wages for his income, his income will stop when he’s not working.  Bob’s income will drop or stop when he’s ill.  When Bob retires, his income drops too – even though he needs more money when he’s retired, because of all that time he has to fill and those additional bills (such as medical bills etc.)

However, if Bob relies on profits rather than wages, he will generate money when he’s asleep or at the gym or taking his dog for a walk.  If Bob becomes ill, he makes just as much money.  When Bob retires, his income continues just like before.

This approach is sometimes called passive income.

Passive income

No matter what line of business you are in, I STRONGLY recommend you develop some passive income streams.  Today, I have over 20 passive income streams, which means I earn money on a daily basis, without having to exchange my time.

For example, I sell a massively popular audio program which I recorded for businesspeople and entrepreneurs like yourself.  It sells all over the world, 24 hours a day.  I get up each morning, check my paypal account and see how much money I’ve made while I was asleep.  That’s passive income in action.

No matter what line of business you are in, there are many opportunities to develop sources of income that will work for you, while you are doing other things.

Financial freedom

My passive income streams are what allow me to spend so much time doing what I love (like writing this blog post for you.)  I also get to pick and choose how many hours I work, who I work with and where I want to live; (here in the relaxing Yorkshire countryside rather than a crowded city.)

It also allows me to pursue my passion, as a marketing coach helping small businesses, that would never have been able to afford my services if I relied on that income for my livelihood.  I’m able to work with people and help them do the same as me, and I can do it for peanuts – because I subsidise my time, to pursue what I love!

In stark contrast, exchanging your time for money has a number of non-financial pitfalls.  For example, just look at the experts we see online, who seem to spend half their life away from their families; travelling to their next speaking gig.  Many of these hard working men and women have young children and I’m sure would rather be with them, than getting on the next plane or giving their ‘talk’ to the next group, miles away from home.

My income streams

For the best financial security and quality of life, I believe it’s important to move away from that form of time-based income and exchange it for passive income.

Here are a few examples of passive income that I use:

  • Licenses: Companies pay me annual license fees, to use marketing and sales material, which I produced for them.  This is my single largest passive income stream.
  • Audio product: People buy my Motivation Master Class mp3, then download it in seconds onto their computer. I have no stock or dispatch issues to deal with, so there are no limits on how many I can sell.  By the way, it’s brilliant!!
  • Affiliates: I have a number of affiliate products that are linked to me, via various websites and blogs, like the Headway theme I use to build / develop this blog.
  • Investments: I have certain investments, which pay me an income.
  • Land: I receive income from renting land that I own, which pays me a recurring income.

There are stacks of other ways to attract passive income, such as; referral fees, software licenses, advertising, ebook sales, MLM residuals and book royalties etc.  The key is to find one to begin with, which suits you and then to develop it and add to it.

Is it easy?

No, I don’t think it is easy – otherwise everyone would be doing it, right?  I spent years mastering the skills required to develop and then market my products.  There are people that sell books on the subject, that make it sound like all you have to do is spend 20 minutes developing a product or filling a website with ads and links and BOOM – magic money.

That’s BULLSHIT!

But it sells get rich quick books, often written and read by people who work 16 hours a day, so they can “make money while they sleep!”

Most passive income requires 3 key elements:

  1. Courage
  2. Research
  3. Marketing

I believe people (especially those that read this blog) have the courage required.  However, very few people take time to fully research what passive income streams to use and even fewer bother to learn how to market them effectively.

Those income streams are also why I don’t to spend half my life away from my family speaking at events, like many business bloggers!  That’s because the vast majority of my income is based on profits and not fees.

Make this YOUR moment!

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Here’s a question for you:

Have you ever wondered how far you can go with your business?

I mean, if you REALLY applied yourself fully; did the hard stuff, made the tough decisions, used all those great ideas you have picked up over the years – how far could you go?

I believe you are capable of truly amazing things.

Here’s why I am sharing this with you today: By cranking things up a gear or two, you can achieve literally life-changing results.

Make this YOUR moment

My mentor Jim Rohn used to say that whilst a ship can’t turn around in an instant, it can change its course instantly.  Right now, you have the power to make this your moment; the moment where you decided to move things up to the next level and change the course of your business (and life) forever.

I will give you all the help I can here on the blog and via Twitter.