So I signed in to Twitter just now and saw a trending topic called #foramilliondollars (Search that at Twitter.com).

What I found people posting was fascinating from a ‘what makes people tick’ perspective.  Sure, some of the posts are just silly and intentionally so.  But some of them are kinda revealing of the beliefs we have.

Check out the RT I circled…

This is a REALLY easy way to find out what you believe.

For example, this RT shows someone said they’d actually give a shit if they had a million dollars.

I bet a LOT of people can relate to that – there was a day when I would have.

But the belief that generates a statement like that is that if you don’t have a million dollars, you don’t give a shit.

Here’s where this is helpful to actually make your life better.  If you don’t give a shit (care, in other words), you won’t likely ever have a million dollars – and if you happen to fall into a million bucks, you won’t keep it long.  Sorry lotto winners

I know, these tweets are intended to be funny, ironic, glib, whatever… the point is they still reveal underlying beliefs.   And in a belief driven universe, what you believe is what you get.

Most people are unhappy because they would identify with the statement this person made – and they are unhappy and broke precisely of beliefs like this.  To be successful at anything you have to put in effort, focus, take action, and yes, clear limiting beliefs every step of the way.  In other words, ‘give a shit’ BEFORE you have the success.

I’m not knocking the folks tweeting here, this is a moment we can all use to put a mirror up to the words we say and see what beliefs lie under the surface.

Then, instead of judging the words, be aware of what effect they might be having in your life.

Do events present or past match up with the belief that is revealed?

If so, you can set yourself free of that belief because you won’t knowingly harm yourself.  Beliefs such as this persist primarily when we don’t examine them, hiding in the shadows away from the clear bright light of awareness.

Wouldn’t it be more powerful to ask would WOULD you want to believe?

What beliefs would support what you want?

That is the next step after you take a look at what you already believe and compare that to the results you are getting.

What results DO you want – and what beliefs would support that.

As Joe Vitale so wisely put it in The Secret, the real ’secret’ is that you can ‘Be Happy Now’.

Do today whatever would give you joy and happiness and create value and THAT is what you do for a million dollars.

Whether you actually get the million dollars or not is beside the point (a topic for another post).  What matters is that you’re happy now and enjoying your life today instead of postponing ‘happiness’ till some day if you had a lot of money.

In the end, if you are happy now through the end of your days, you win.  The truth is, the happier you are NOW, the more happiness you will attract (and that may include things like a million dollars).

If you get the million bucks along the way, cool – but it won’t make you any ‘happier’ (especially if you are currently unhappy).  Money makes life easier, but you literally can’t buy happiness.   To think it does is a scarcity mindset that really means, you can’t be happy WITHOUT money.  Look around.  You’ll find people poor as church mice who are happy and folks born with silver spoons who are miserable and vice versa.  

Money is not the deciding factor in happiness or all rich people would be happy and all poor people would be unhappy, which is clearly not the case.   

If you doubt me then the middle class (all of them) would only be ‘middle happy’ if money truly were the end all and be all.  There, in one paragraph I’ve dispelled the belief that you need a million dollars to be happy (lol).  

I’m all for you getting as much money as you want.  It’s a great tool. 

How you get it, how you keep it, how you invest it – all topics beyond the point I’m making here.

The question is, if money won’t buy happiness (even a MILLION DOLLARS) then what??? 

You can create it for free though any time you want

You just have to believe you can be happy now.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know… comment below. 

- Craig

I am relatively new to actually using Twitter, but I’ve had an account for quite some time now.  One of the developments I’ve noticed is that when I follow someone I immediately get back a message that usually offers me some link to a freebie, or something like that.  I think this is a potetially risky strategy, here’s why.

As an internet marketer I get what the purpose is of the ‘autoresponse’ direct message, it’s like the email autoresponder.  You want to ‘Follow Up’ immediately when your new prospect’s interest is ‘hot’.  From that perspective, it SEEMS like a good idea.

Here’s the thing… back when email autoresponders came out, people thought they were fancy, new, even cool.

But one thing that always stays the same is that stuff changes. 

If you are thinking ‘autoresponse’ is cool, you’re just so stuck in 1999.  This is 2009 last time I checked, and now email is old hat.  Starting in about 2005 email became something to manage, even annoying – especially if it is an autoresponse from some marketing ’scammer’ (that’s the perception, not my opinion).  I started email marketing in 2002 or so and watched the tidal shift occur and spent several years teaching internet marketers how to build real relationships with their lists and do it right.

Twitter is all about authenticity, spontaneous response and personal connection (which is actually consistent with how I taught email marketing, but that’s another post…).

Autoresponse in Twitterland is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.  Now, to be clear, I’ve seen exceptions to this…  some are pretty good.   Here’s what they have in common…

* cool autoresponses appear… PERSONAL

* personally engaging autoresponses are hard to tell from a real reply (though I think I almost always can tell… they’re ‘general’ but friendly. Evergreen, but not truly personal)

* they don’t have links to a freebie that requires an opt in

I’m not saying sending Automatic Messages is inherently ‘Bad’. 

 But it’s clear to me so far that treating Twitter like an ‘email autoresponder 2.0′ is a big mistake.

A link in an autoresponse direct message feels like a phony gift to me… it’s impersonal.  After all, EVERYONE who follows that person is going to get the same ‘gift’.  If you want to make your new Twitter follower feel ‘unspecial’, this is a very effective way to do it.

It’s kind of like calling every guy you see ‘bro’.  Like ‘Hey bro, thanks for the taxi ride.’  or ‘Bro, why did you give me a speeding ticket…’  I don’t know about you, but I don’t call just any guy ‘bro’.  Know what I mean?

(By the way, if you have met me personally and I didn’t call you bro, don’t worry.  There may be hope for you yet, lol).

This is the age of authenticity in my opinion.  Inspiration, transparency, and just being ‘real’ stands out in a good way.  Being a slickster stands out in a bad way… and a lot of good folks are getting bad marketing advice on this and unknowingly stumbling onto Twitter and acting like unwelcome party crashers.  It wasn’t too long ago people were pimping some rather stupid MySpace tactics… and now where are they??? 

Anyway, that’s my take on it after getting bombarded with all sorts of autoresponse DM’s as I’ve reached out and followed more folks on Twitter.  I’ve followed like two links in automatic DM replies and I pretty much have not paid attention to the folks who sent them to me, just from my gut reaction to the tactic.  I can only imagine what a more experienced Twitizen (hey, I wonder if I made that up… probably not, lol) might think.  Some of the autofollows were so cheesy I just unfollowed the person for being a bonehead.  Why ‘Follow’ a bonehead???

I’m very fascinated with the culture and psychology of Twitter, and how marketers are adapting, even EVOLVING as they use it. 

Fact is,  many people are uncomfortable with marketing…. and we are all numb to bad marketing.  Some are even outraged by marketing of any kind. 

Not me… I’m in business for myself and I’m passionate about entrepreneurship.  Marketing at it’s best is simply sharing the benefits of your solution to the problems your prospects want badly to solve.  Helping people know you have solutions for their problems is a GOOD thing.  But how it is done, the context of the marketing message and who is targeted are all crucial details you need to be aware of in this overly saturated marketing day and age.  Any strategy that is out of synch with the audience culture or is in any way ‘fake’ or ‘cheesy’ is just not going to work out.

Let’s put it this way… I’m against bad, cheesy, BS marketing. 

Folks on Twitter seem to be against bad marketing, too.

Remember, people want to buy stuff… I do, you do, we all do.  As marketers, we need to focus on selling in the ways that we ourselves like to be sold.  Marketers who approach social media like nothing’s different are in for a rude awakening.  And Twitter is probably the worst place to learn that lesson the hard way due to the viral nature of the community. 

Twitter is a lot like a high school cafeteria… if you trip over your shoelaces and fall on your face, everyone will know it instantly.

As with any new culture, I think it’s wise to learn the ways of that culture before opening one’s mouth too much… so if you’re new to Twitter, I suggest listening and watching and learning as crucial first steps. I’ll admit, I was quick to see that I should have a Twitter account… but slow to figure out how it fit into my life or business model.  

So, if you agree or disagree, let me know by commenting on this post.   Follow me on Twitter ( @craigperrine ) if you’d like… let’s keep the conversation going.

And don’t worry, I won’t send you an automatic response

- Craig

So I’m finally down to 200 lbs… which means I’ve now lost 27 pounds and reached the lowest weight I’ve had in like 5 years.

After my post about ‘my pants falling off’ it hit me that I wanted to talk a little bit more about how my weight loss is a perfect metaphor to explain Internet marketing.

When I speak at a seminar, pretty much every time someone will tell me they’ve been struggling for a long time to get their online business off the ground. Well, if I compare how long it took me to finally figure out how to lose weight, I can relate.

Here’s the recipe I’m following that’s been working:

1) Follow a frequent meal plan (6 small meals a day)
2) Each meal contains essential nutrients and protein
3) I’m consuming less calories than I need, so my body burns fat to make up difference
4) Simply follow proven directions every day
5) Drink plenty of water

Internet marketing also has a recipe, but most people don’t follow it. It’s the same recipe that works for any business, really.

Here’s the internet marketing recipe:

1) Find a market that wants something
2) Sell them what they want
3) Build a list of prospects and customers
4) Sell them more of what they want
5) Rinse and repeat

The thing is, most people ‘know’ that receipe and yet they don’t follow it. 

When I’ve had a project bomb, it’s because I tried to do something completely unique no one had done before (oh boy!)

Just like I finally got the weight loss results after years of ‘failing’, you can get the internet business success you want if you get what I’m saying here.

All it takes is looking at the formula that works and spot which step (or steps) you currently aren’t following.  The very nature of recipes is that when you follow them, you tend to get the same results. As I watch a pound or so melt away each day I’m following this diet, I am reminded every day it is because of that recipe – not ME.  My only job is to follow it.

Listen, you might be thinking that weight loss is ’simpler’ than starting a business…

Not true.  

The  multi-billion dollar weight loss industry exists because people struggle to lose weight and they are always looking for a new plan.

Here’s the thing…

Most people are desperate to ‘find’ the proven formula and keep searching and searching to find the ‘perfect’ one.

Forget that… seriously!

The difficulty is not in finding a proven recipe… there are proven recipes handed to you on a silver platter every day. 

Ever wonder why some people will buy a ‘guru’ course and become a fabulous success story and another person will fail?

Hint: it’s not that the system worked differently for each person…

The challenge is actually getting yourself to FOLLOW IT.  Truth is, most people who fail confuse buying courses with taking action.  The real test begins when you get the course.  Most people simply don’t do anything (or they start but don’t keep going).  Now, I know that a big reason for that is that the next day they see another course that some ‘guru’ tells them they need to have… distraction kicks in and a new project starts.  When that project stalls, the process is repeated over and over again until time or money runs out.

I’m not saying not to buy courses… I do (selectively).  I value them for the recipes I get.  They’re like cookbooks.  But I use them to prepare meals that I eat… not to start a bunch of meals all at once without finishing any.  If I did that, I’d never eat.  See the difference?

What I’m suggesting is just this…

Stop looking for ‘the recipe’ (you probably already have one that will work).

Instead look at WHY you don’t follow recipes… you’ll save a heck of a lot of time and money!

The diets, the internet marketing courses, the reasons for failure are pretty much the same.   

Entrepreneurs like to do things their own way.  We don’t want to be told what to do.  Following recipes combines both of those things… we have to submit to doing something according to steps, AND that recipe is telling us what to do… so we rebel.  We think we know ‘better’.  We want to be different.  Special. Unique.  Otherwise we’d go get a job and be like ‘everybody else’.

Now, the missing ingredient in any recipe is the cook…

You may well have failed in the past because you were trying to do something you really didn’t care about that much – or it wasn’t  ‘you’.  I do add in the step of following inspiration because I’ve found that when people do that they tend to follow through and take action.  After coaching enough entrepreneurs I have learned that if you are not truly inspired by what you are doing, passionate, whatever you want to call it, you won’t stick with it.

You don’t have to be inspired by the product or the market (though I prefer to be).   Maybe the process of launching a business in a hot market inspires you, like putting together the pieces of a puzzle, or playing a game to win.

Something about the process of ‘following the recipe’ should inspire you…

Just add a proven business model to your inspired idea and you can expect success like clockwork.

The real  ’secret’ is plugging that inspired, creative energy into  a proven receipe… add your style, your personality, your passion as a twist to the recipe.   That way you’ll get the buzz you want from the project… and you won’t be trying to figure out how to succeed from scratch.  Invest your time, your energy, your money into the ingredients and steps according to a proven recipe and you’ll be rewarded with the sweet success you want.   All you have to do is surrender the ego and allow yourself to  follow a proven recipe. 

Hey, my diet isn’t ‘creative’, or ‘fun’, but it works like clockwork and THAT is satisfying

Now go follow a proven recipe and make some real money like clockwork!  

I’m going to be talking more about ‘the recipe’ I follow and how to break free from the perpetual reasons why people don’t follow recipes here on this blog. 

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