6 Strategies That Actually Helped My Progress When I Started

I remember the first time I heard about eBooks. This idea of reading a book electronically seemed pretty cool. I owned a service business in the bread industry, which meant I was only familiar with manual labor type work. I never dreamed of making money from eBooks or on the Internet. I would see the Facebook ads talking about the “laptop lifestyle” and I would laugh.

Despite what I thought and what people said was possible, I knew that I wanted to chase my dream of being a writer. In mid-2011, I started a blog on Blogger (remember that?) and had NO clue what I was doing. All I knew was that I wanted to write, so I published short posts on that blog three times a week.

Five years later, I run a very successful worldwide lifestyle business. I’m writing this article to you from a café in Cape Town, South Africa. I consulted with an amazing company here and got compensated well for my work. I leave here this week and head back to the United States for a few days. Then it’s off to the next country. It took a lot of struggle to get here. It took a lot of trying and failing. It took me using these six strategies that actually helped my progress.

Stop consuming so much content online.

The Internet can be the Wild West. Everywhere you look is more and more information about what helps you build an online/lifestyle business. You see some big shot who used a certain strategy and it led to six figures. You want to make six-figures so you immediately listen to their podcast, buy their course, and stalk them online.

For me to figure out what would actually help MY lifestyle business, I had to STOP. I had to unsubscribe from a ton of podcasts, stop reading a bunch of blogs, stop-attending webinars, stop watching Facebook Lives and focus. I realized that I had all the information—what I need was to take action on what I already knew. I then set up a schedule, which allowed me to take action. Don’t let information overload cripple your progress. Essentialism by Greg McKeown really opened my eyes. 

Guest posting on blogs.

I realized that no matter what I did, it would be meaningless if I didn’t have an audience. I could have the best website in the world, I could have all the fancy widgets and plugins, but if no one was there to see it, what was the point?

I knew that I needed exposure to places that had an audience. I went on a journey to guest post on as many blogs as I could. I ended up guest posting on over 60 blogs in 2012, which led to 500,000 visitors to my website that year. These days, I also write for large publications, which is a 201 version of guest posting. With either strategy, your work is being exposed to millions of potential new people. A few of them will click back and subscribe to your email list. As you do this consistently, your audience will grow. Here is a great list of places you can guest post on.

Getting interviewed on podcasts.

Being a guest on podcasts is also a great way to grow your audience. I found that I could go on a podcast and share the journey I was on. People connected with the story and a few of them started following my work. You can get interviewed on a podcast and do the same thing. The thing I would tell you is to show the podcaster how you will add value to their audience. Don’t make it feel like you just want to be on the show to promote something. Here is a great way to get on your first few shows.

Not getting caught up in the busy work.

The busy work can include things like always fixing your website, making graphics for everywhere, attending another training that you don’t need, and things that won’t help you make progress. The busy work is easier to do than building an audience and selling. The busy work can easily derail your progress and keep you stuck. Focus is your best friend. Focus on what will help your next steps and what will lead to income.

Creating things to sell and then selling.  

Selling is super hard for many of us. It’s uncomfortable in our minds but you need it to grow your lifestyle business. I finally started to make progress when I got over my feelings and started to sell consistently. I had to realize that I wasn’t spamming people. I was giving them good content that would help their lives. There was nothing wrong with me charging a fair price for that. Create different products and services that help your target audience. Sell those consistently and grow your lifestyle business.

Not chasing influencers and being very selective with networking.

It’s natural to want to connect with someone at the top of your industry and hope they give you a shout out but it’s a terrible strategy. Influencers are busy people who get hit up all day long. The chances of you connecting with them are very small, but more than that, you can build your lifestyle business on your own with some of the other strategies that I’ve mentioned in this article. Also, be very selective who you network with. There are many people who talk a good talk but aren’t taking action.

You can build a lifestyle business that supports you and gives you a life of freedom. You can accomplish what you feel is impossible if you use the time you have very wisely. It’s easy to run around like a chicken with your head cut off. Focus on your foundation, building an audience, create things to sell and then sell often. Once you start to make some progress, scale and grow. Don’t let distractions or hot-at-the-moment- strategies keep you from what will actually help your lifestyle business.

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I’m super excited to open registration for two brand new master classes as a part of my Black Friday deal. Each class is $97 or you can take both for $157. The content is super yummy!

Results Self-Publishing will teach you how to put a book together, launch it to bestseller status, how to consistently sell books, and how to get a book deal. I will show you exactly how I’ve sold over 100,000 copies of my books.

Writing Online will teach you how to write, how to write more effectively, how to get exposure and how to make a couple of dollars with your writing.

This is a limited run of these classes. They won’t ever be offered again at these prices. Spots in the classes are limited so that we can go deeper with the content. All the details are here.