Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
The 4 Steps to Creating Afformations That Change Your Life
Step 1: Ask yourself what you want.
You can use a goal you've previously written down or start from scratch. You decide.
Please note that traditional success coaches stop right here. They tell you to "set your goals" and then say "affirmations" in an attempt to convince your brain that you will have what you want... sometime, somehow, somewhere.
Let's use Brandon from Utah as an example. He wanted to make more money by doing something he loved. He was an insurance salesman who'd spent $30,000 on every "how to succeed" program out there, with no results. So for his goal, he wrote: "I want to be all I can be in life."
Now, the breakthrough step...
Step 2: Form a QUESTION which assumes that what you want is already true.
Forming a question which assumes that what you want is already true is the key to creating Afformations that change your life.
Your life is a reflection of the subconscious assumptions you make. That's why Step 2 of The Afformations Method is to change your communication with the world inside yourself. Afformations are the fastest, most effective way I've ever seen to immediately change your communication with the world inside of you AND the world outside of you.
So Brandon began afforming: "Why am I allowed to be, do, and have all that I want in life?"
Step 3: Give yourself to the question.
The point of Afformations is not to find "the answer" but to ask better questions. When you ask better questions, your mind automatically begins to focus on what you have as opposed to what you don't have.
Once Brandon began to afform what he wanted, his mind automatically began to search for the answer. He started doing things a little differently and talking to people with new confidence.
Which brings us to Step 4 of The Afformations Method - the one you MUST do to get optimum results...
Step 4: Take new ACTIONS based on your new assumptions about yourself.
Even though Brandon had spent thousands of dollars on every "how to succeed" program out there, he subconsciously assumed they wouldn't work for him. So they didn't.
After reading my book, he realized that this was what was keeping him from what he wanted. So he began to take new action on the very programs that had not worked for him.
He began calling more people. He followed up with more confidence. By focusing on what he had instead of what he lacked, positive results naturally followed.
Once Brandon followed the four steps of The Afformations Method, his sales tripled in 30 days. In less than nine months, his income increased 560% and he was named Agent of the Year.
The point of Afformations is not to find "the answer" but to change your questions. When you follow The Afformations Method, you will form empowering questions that immediately change your subconscious assumptions.
For example, Andrea had been trying to get pregnant for more than a year but had a huge mental block. She thought she didn't deserve it, her body couldn't do it, and so on. After her psychologist told her about Afformations, Andrea began asking herself "Why do I conceive so easily?" and "Why am I so fertile?" Within a month, she was pregnant. Now she's asking herself, "Why do I carry my babies full term?"... "Why am I free from morning sickness?"... and all kinds of other questions that are making her feel great.
Omar, a car salesman, was selling one or two cars a month and making less than $600 in commissions. Then he started afforming "Why am I so successful at selling cars?" And in just two days, he sold four new cars, three used ones, and made more than $1,800.
Judy, a 55-year-old grandmother from Texas, wanted to lose weight but told herself she was too old. In November 2008, she joined my Platinum Weight Loss Club. I recommended that she start asking questions like "Why do I lose weight so easily?" and "Why do I love eating healthy foods?" During the holidays, while most of America was gaining weight, Judy lost 24 pounds. And by February 2009, she was down over 30 pounds and feeling fantastic.
Can you see how this process must, by definition, change your life? Using Afformations, you can take conscious control of your subconscious thoughts . Change the questions, change your results, and change your life!
[Ed. Note: Noah St. John is the inventor of Afformations and bestselling author of The Secret Code of Success: 7 Hidden Steps to More Wealth and Happiness.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Your Business Is Selling Your Business
By Michael Masterson
I recently received a letter from a nice lady I'll call "Lynn" that reminded me of something very important.
It is something that can thwart your efforts to start your own business. It is probably the main reason why smart and talented people never enjoy financial independence. It is big. It is bad. But it is also invisible.
And that's the real problem. If you can't see it, you are unlikely to do anything about it.
I myself was held back by this invisible problem for many years. It prevented me from pursuing my own career. It blocked me from making a lot of money.
But when I finally saw it clearly, I eliminated it quickly. After that, everything fell into place.
Here's Lynn's letter:
"I've worn many hats, juggled them off and on in my years as Mother, Grandmother, Realtor, Concessionaire, and Artist Retailer/Wholesaler. Love, divorce, custody issues, death, inheritance, bankruptcy, accidents, health issues, friendship, betrayal -- I've either been through it or carried someone through it.
"What I seem to do best is calm nerves and give good advice, to the point where it often interferes with other endeavors. I've seriously thought about ETR's Internet business ideas, but I'm wary of selling things. It seems that, among family and friends at least, I am the oracle, the witchy matriarch with the final answer. The trendy term 'life coach' isn't quite it. I want to be like an e-mail comforter. A listener of last resort. A sounding board.
"It's the only thing I think I'm really quite good at. Could this be a business?"
Do you see Lynn's problem?
I do. It isn't about choosing the right business to go into. It is much more serious than that. Lynn's problem is that she is "wary of selling."
How can Lynn hope to be successful at business -- any business -- if she is wary of selling?
And what is especially interesting to me is that she voices her problem without recognizing it. Rather than understand that her fear of selling is the issue, she has convinced herself that what is holding her back is not knowing whether the particular business she has chosen can work.
Can it work?
Yes. But not if she is wary of selling!
Business is selling. It doesn't matter whether you want to sell pots and pans, horticultural information, custom-built homes, or hash pipes -- unless you are willing to market your product, you won't succeed.
Lynn suffers from a common delusion. She believes that there are two kinds of people: honest, hardworking people who don't sell... and greedy, self-centered people who do.
What nonsense!
Whether they're dealing with "things" or ideas, everyone has in their heart a voice that wants to persuade others to buy what they're selling. So the first thing Lynn needs to do is to make friends with her inner salesperson.
Some of the best marketers I've ever trained detested selling when they came to work with me. They had the typical liberal arts education -- the one that perpetuates the ludicrous myth that teachers and museum curators and novelists don't make a living by selling.
I prefer to work with young people like that because their reluctance to "sell" can be converted to a desire to sell with integrity. Business school graduates are often jaded when it comes to selling. They don't become great salespeople because they never get beyond the tricks and techniques. They never really want to make a personal connection.
But enough about that right now. Let's get to Lynn's question.
Lynn says she can deliver comfort. But will people pay for it?
Yes... but not if she calls it comfort.
Think about what therapists do. They charge pretty good money to give people comforting advice. Yes, there are some who deliver discomfort -- but they don't stay in business very long. People pay therapists to make them feel good. If you've ever been in therapy with a successful therapist, you already know that.
But if therapists said that they were in the business of making their clients feel good, no one would take them seriously and no one would pay them good money for their comforting advice. So rather than advertise what they are really selling, they advertise their methodology (Freudian, Behaviorist, etc.) or the type of "problems" they deal with (addiction, obsessive compulsive disorders, etc.).
Since Lynn isn't a trained psychotherapist, she can't honestly advertise those sorts of things. So she will have to come up with her own ideas about why people get themselves into trouble and how they can find solutions. These ideas will form themselves into a unified whole, if she thinks about them long enough. This unified whole is what we call an "intellectual franchise." That's what Lynn needs to develop. And then she needs to test it to see if it sells.
Remember, starting a business and making it a success is not just a matter of having a good idea. The idea has to be one that people will be happy to pay money for.
So if you are in Lynn's position -- looking to turn your idea into a profitable business -- you have to become comfortable with selling.
How do you do that when you are "wary of selling," as Lynn puts it?
The first step is to understand that there are two kinds of selling:
1. Pushing people (to buy things they don't want)
2. Helping people (to select those things they do want to buy)
Pushy salespeople -- the telemarketer who calls you while you're eating dinner, the broker who calls you on the weekend with a "hot deal," the proverbial used-car salesman -- delight in persuading you to do what you don't want to do. Such salespeople see the selling process as a kind of battle where they bully and beat you into submission. It's an ego game for them, and your acquiescence -- even if you really do want the product -- is an indication that they've won.
Such salespeople should be pilloried and run out of town. They are the same kind of people who get a kick out of not letting you merge in traffic and cutting ahead of you in the supermarket line.
Fortunately, salespeople who understand that their job is to solve a customer's problem or help him meet a need are more common than their obnoxious cousins.
How would Lynn go about doing that?
Let's say she has a prospective client whose main concern is the future of his marriage. What she would do, in this case, is ask him questions about it and find out, in as much detail as possible, what his worries are. Having done this, she would be in a great position to address each one -- to explain how her product (her advice) can give him effective solutions. By driving home the benefits of her product -- benefits the prospect cares about -- she is making a very strong sales presentation. She is telling him exactly what he wants to hear.
Remember -- your prospect wants to be sold. So long as you help him understand how your product can help him achieve his desires or solve his problems, he will be prejudiced in your favor.
So don't sell him, help him. Begin by finding out what he wants and needs. And then (if and only if you can really help him), make the strongest, most specific case you can to convince him that his desires will be achieved and his problems solved.
Next, you need to start testing various ways to position your product... preferably on the Internet... until you find one that catches on.
And then, to grow your business, you will have to produce lots of products that tie into your initial business idea and lots of sales letters to convince people to buy them.
This is a rough outline of what will be involved in making Lynn's business work. It is not easy, but it is definitely doable.
The Internet has lowered all the barriers. Lynn can set up a website for a few hundred dollars in a single day. She can begin generating traffic to that website through a combination of inexpensive pay-per-click (PPC) ads and organic search techniques.
Step by step, she can develop a little business that initially brings in a few hundred dollars a week and then a few thousand a week. And then she can move on to more ambitious marketing techniques that will leapfrog her into the big time.
None of what she has to do is rocket science. Tens of thousands of people all around the world are making six-figure incomes from the comfort of their own homes. Lynn can and should be one of them.
But she must begin by getting over her distaste for selling. And then she must follow a proven formula that will allow her to take full advantage of the cheap costs and wide reach of the Internet.
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