Kimanzi Constable's Blog, page 47

Why Amazon Free Days Won’t Work

When my first book wasn’t selling, I hit the Internet to find out what was working and what strategy I could use to get my book to sell at least a few copies! It was downright depressing.

Sometimes the Internet can be a blessing and a curse, there was a wealth of information but it was hard to see what advice I actually needed to follow. One strategy that kept popping up was the KDP Select free days.

If you’re not familiar with how this works, you have to enroll in KDP Select on Amazon. When you do, you have to agree to make your book exclusive to Amazon. You can’t even sell it on your website.

Once you’re enrolled, you get the option to make your book free five days out of every 90 days. All the information online said to make your book free for those days and it would help your book sales.

I took the advice and enrolled. I made my book free and it was downloaded over 15,000 times in those five days. I was excited because with that many people downloading it I thought I would get a lot of reviews and a bunch of sales afterwards.

If you check the reviews right now, I have twelve. I made this book free three years ago so the reviews obviously didn’t come in. Sales?  After the promotion, I sold 100 books. That was many more than I had before but after that first month, the sales died off.

The current strategy 

You can tell by the title of this post that I’m not a fan of this strategy in the way I was taught. As a writer, I want to approach this objectively and acknowledge that people may not have reviewed the book or recommended it because they thought my book sucked.

I’m sure there are people who did think it sucked and that’s cool but after using other strategies that book has now sold over 30,000 copies. Someone must like it!

Let’s just think about a few things. Amazon estimates that for every 1,000 times your book is downloaded during a free promotion you’ll on average get one review, ONE REVIEW! You would be better off giving your book to ten strangers and asking them to review it.  You would probably get at least two people to review it.

Amazon even has a killer suggestion for not only getting reviews but reviews that matter. Check their suggestion here.

The problem with this strategy is with the numbers. Do you remember when we talked about conversions?  The theory is that once your book gets up there you’ll get ranked high, even number one in a category that will help your book continue to sell.

Think about this, when was the last time you bought a book by an author you didn’t know because it was number one in a category on Amazon? I’m guessing the answer is close to zero times. The ranking in a category doesn’t matter to the average book buyer, but it’s good to leverage in other ways.

Hoping people share your book after it’s free and hoping Amazon’s algorithm kicks in is not a good strategy. There’s a better way to use the free days that has some thought behind it. Before we get to that, if you have a Goodreads account, check out an interesting discussion about Amazon’s free days here. 

One of the biggest downfalls of this strategy is not being able to sell your book on your own website. Amazon is the big boy in our industry and whether or not you like them, you need your book on Amazon.

However, you miss a HUGE opportunity when you don’t sell your book on your website:  the opportunity to connect with that book buyer directly. When someone buys a book on Amazon they get the email address of that person.

When someone buys your book off of your website, you get their email address and at the very least an opportunity to connect with them and a chance to sell them something else in the future.

When I write that, I don’t want you to think of this in the sleazy Internet-marketer type of way. Think of it this way: someone buys your book and gets incredible value. Then, later you offer a deal on coaching. Since they’re on your email list and have already gotten value, they take the deal.

Selling your book on your website is a lot more profitable. You get direct access to your customers. That’s invaluable and something you can’t get from KDP Select.

A better strategy

I want to give you three ways to use KDP Select in a better way:

1.  Spread a message: If your book is all about spreading a message and not about the money, make it free. Promote the heck out of it and get the book in thousands of people’s hands to start changing lives. If you don’t care about the money, then it doesn’t matter, make that puppy free. You can also make your book free if you just want to build an audience and introduce people to your writing.

2. Promote throughout the book: You decide you want to promote your other services or your website, make the book free and get the book in the hands of 15,000 people. You make your offers in the book super appealing. A portion of those people see you’re an authority and they hire you. They see you’re producing killer content so they sign up for your email list and become customers later. Promote the book during the free days to maximize downloads but make sure you have killer offers throughout the book that lead back to you converting one way or another.

3. Use the free days with a series of books: This to me is by far the best strategy. You have at least two books that are a series, more than that would be better. You make the first book in the series free, people love it, and naturally they’ll want to see how the series ends. Then they’ll buy all the books in the next series. This works especially well for fiction books but can work well for non-fiction. It’s the strategy that helped Jasinda Wilder become a NY Times best-selling author with her self-published books. Think about how amazing that is.  She had eight books and made the first one free. People kept wanting to follow the series. In six months she and her husband published 20 books.  See her story here. 

Look, in the end you have to decide what’s best for you. Success online means testing what works for your platform. There is an absolutely killer article that talks a lot about what I talked about. Check it out, it’s a fabulous read. 

My hope is that this helps you decide what’s best for you. Many people will give you advice that they’ve heard works but they haven’t had success themselves. That’s not good advice to follow. If you need help with self-publishing, check out the series I just did. Many people told me it was valuable.

If you want more specific help, I do offer coaching and have helped many authors self-publish their books and do well. I myself have self-published two books that have sold over 82,000 copies, so I know a little about this stuff

What has been your experience with making your book free on Amazon? 

P.S. On Tuesday I’ll be hosting a live chat on my Facebook Fanpage and Twitter using the hashtag #Dreamchat! We’ll be talking about chasing your dreams and practical advice on how to make them a reality, hope to see you there I’ll be giving away one free hour of coaching!

How To Successfully Self-Publish Books With a Small Platform (Part 4)

Here we are in part four in this series on how to self-publish books when you don’t have a huge audience. Don’t forget that tonight I’m hosting a free webinar where I’ll be continuing this series, answering your questions and telling you about an amazing opportunity to be a part of a live demo. Details here

What I hope you take away from this series is that your first book isn’t “it.” This first book is just the foundation that you need to build on and create a real business from. My first book flopped but I got back up and self-published a second book and created an online business that supports our family so well, we were able to move to Maui, Hawaii.

I didn’t and still don’t have a huge audience, that’s how I know you can do this too. After this series is over, I’ll be having a couple of follow-up posts that talk about how to self-publish a book: who to hire for editing and formatting, what you should price your book. I’ll also be talking about KDP Select and a few other things related to self-publishing.

If you want more specific help, I do offer coaching and have helped many authors self-publish their books and do well. I myself have self-published two books that have sold over 82,000 copies, so I know a little about this stuff  Let’s pick up where we left off:

9. Set up spots on local TV. Despite the popularity of the Internet, people still watch TV. There’s an untapped opportunity that we miss because we think it’s impossible: being interviewed on your TV local stations. Think about how much content your local Fox or CBS (and so on) affiliate has to fill, they’re always looking for good content.

The key is having a good hook, something that garbs attention or causes controversy. There’s a strategy for how to get booked but I won’t share that here, I’m saving that for a special bonus Even with a self-published book, you can print out physical copies through a few places and bring them on one of your local stations.

10. Launch the books for 4 days: Tuesday through Friday. When we see the A-Listers launch a book, they usually use the whole week, the reason they’re doing that is to make the New York Times best-sellers list, that’s not our goal (YET!). For smaller platform launches, you don’t need a full week, three to four days max. I say launch on a Tuesday and end on a Friday.

Monday: everyone is returning to work and starting their week, they’re not going to be thinking about your book. Once Saturday hits: people are thinking about how they will enjoy their weekend, again, they’re not going to be thinking about your book. Tuesday through Friday is a solid four days when you have a chance to get their attention. It’s also shorter, you can drive sales and possibly reach number in a category on Amazon during those days.

I don’t believe it will help your sales to claim number one, the average book buyer isn’t going to decide to buy your book because it was number one in wood-craving on Amazon. It’s something good you can leverage to get interviews and guest posts on larger sites. We will promote hard during those 4 days and have the launch team do the same.

The best approach during those four days is to have your launch team stagger their marketing. See how many people you have on your team, divide that number up by four and have a certain group of people promote each day. That way if there’s some people who have some cross over with their audiences, the audience isn’t overwhelmed with your book.

If you listen to a lot of podcasts, you’ve probably seen a trend lately. A person who has a large following is releasing a book or product and they go on all the podcasts you listen to from other A-Listers. When you look at your podcast app, it’s the same person being interviewed on all ten podcasts you listen to. Once you listen to them one time, you delete all the other shows because you don’t need to hear that same person ten times.

That’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid during launch week. We don’t want people to get sick of us or our book. Having a staggered approach will help with this, plus it will help bring consistent sales everyday during those four days of the launch. That way you can reach number one in a bunch of different categories. Make sense?

11. Package and launch your other products and services. We’ve talked about this but with all the exposure during launch week, you should package and promote your other stuff. Can you offer a discount on your coaching services? How about speaking at a local business function if they buy a certain number of books during launch?

The point is to get create and let the world know about all that you have going on. As we talked about before, when you’re smaller, it’s all about conversions. When you’re getting visitors, are they signing up for you email list and checking out other things on your website?

You have to convert, even if it’s a small number. When working with coaching clients, I’ve seen them start making decent (not earth-shattering) income when they get 100 email subscribers. Converting is key and something we should focus on. This will be the end of the written portion of this series, I’ll continue in the webinar tonight.

Live demo

So I told you at the beginning of this series that you would have a chance to see if what I’m talking about works. My friend Jimmy Burggess is launching his book four days in June (3-6). He’s forming a launch team and wants you on it. We will be using the strategies I’ve been teaching you about.

He’s offering you some killer behind-the-scenes stuff to be on the team, you’ll be able to see how we’re doing this and you’ll walk away with stuff you can use in your next launch. Check out all the freebies and learn how to launch when you have a small audience. .

I’ll also be doing those follow-up posts so stay tuned. You’re going to do this and rock it, be confident! What self-publishing questions do you have? 

 

How To Successfully Self-Publish Books With a Small Platform (Part 3)

This is the third post in our series on how to self-publish a book when you’re not an A-Lister. We’ll continue in this free webinar I’m hosting on Tuesday April 22 at 8 pm CST/9 EST, details here. All your questions will be answered live!

Look, can you do this and do it well? Yes! You have to adjust your expectations and see this for the opportunity that it really is. Let your first book be just that, your first book, from there launch more books or more products and services, really build a business that supports your family.

Let’s pick up where we left off:

5. Form a launch team. You may have heard about this strategy but like everything we’ve talked about, we’re going to do it differently. We will form two launch teams: one will be bloggers who will review the book on their blog, share on social media and write an Amazon review, the second team will be people who don’t have a blog but will share on social media and write an Amazon review.

The point of having two teams is to keep things organized. You want to send specific instructions to each team and since they’re both doing different things, it wouldn’t make sense to communicate with them both at the same place. Usually with launch teams, there’s a Facebook group offered as a bonus, we’re not going to do that.

If you’re like me, you’re probably in twenty groups already and after a while, you lose interest and aren’t active anymore. This has been my experience when I formed Facebook groups for my launches and groups I’ve been a part for other launches, it’s not effective anymore. The way we will communicate with our launch team is through two separate email lists.

The purpose of the launch team is to use the power of numbers and bigger networks. When forming the launch team, we won’t just take anyone. They have to have a similar audience or something close. If they don’t, we’ll have them on the second launch team. This team will help let the world know your book and bonuses are out there and ready for people to get them.

To form a launch team, create a separate email list with your email service provider, create a form that asks the questions you want answered. Here’s an example of a form I created for my first launch team:

Your goal is to get as many people as many to help you promote your book during launch week, also get as many reviews as possible on Amazon. I’ll address this more in the free webinar I’m doing.

6. Start teasing the book. We’re going to let your audience and the launch team’s audience know it’s coming and we’re going to remind them regularly but in fun ways. Contests, giveaways, etc. The sooner you start promoting, the better the book will do, start making the book and your platform top of mind to potential buyers.

The launch team should start promoting three weeks before the book launches, have them promote the book causally. At the end of one of their blog posts or on social media, have them show the cover for the book and how excited they are to be reading an advanced copy of the book. Your goal is to plant the seed in people’s minds.

As the launch gets closer, have contests where you give away copies of the book for people who share, give away some of your other products and even coaching sessions. This will serve a duel purpose, you’ll get people excited about winning stuff for free and you’re also letting people know that your services and products are really valuable.

That way during launch week when you start packaging, people will see the real value in what you’re offering. Plus it’s a good chance to get some reviews and testimonials for your other offerings.

7. Prep the launch team. The launch team should read and have their review and promotions all set up one week before the launch. We will help with the social media promotion copy by setting up quotes and things we want the launch teams to share, all they have to do is copy and paste.

We will work on this two weeks before the book launches. We’ll put some time into thinking about what to say, good copy that appeals to your target audience. Prepping the launch team means really guiding them, letting them know exactly what you want them to do and when to do it.

8. Stack up guest posts and interviews. We want as many as possible two weeks before the book launches and during the four days of the launch. Use every connection you have, offer something for free to those willing to feature you, like a free book to one of their audience members.

Give people an incentive to feature you and again, highlight your story. Go to BlogTalk Radio, they have over 30 million listeners worldwide, Google the right sites to guest post for. One key is to give yourself enough lead time. Guest posts on larger sites or interviews are usually set up weeks and maybe even months in advance.

When you’re sitting down figuring out when to launch, plan enough time to work out the interviews and guest posts, they will be crucial. Reach out to anyone and everyone who speaks to your target audience.

This is the end of part three. I’ll be getting deeper in the free webinar I’m doing and we’ll end the series on Tuesday. You’re going to launch not only your book but many other offerings that will support you and your family, trust me!

What questions would you like me to answer about self-publishing a book with a small platform? 

 

 

How to Successfully Self-Publish with a Small Platform (Part 2)

In case you missed it, we’re in a series right now on how to self-publish a book when you’re growing or have a little audience. There’s a ton of advice and information out there from some amazing A-Listers but a lot of it won’t work unless you have a large platform. If you missed part one, check it out here.

I personally know the frustration of putting your blood, sweat and tears into a book, releasing it to the world and having it be largely ignored. You’re frustrated, you’re confused, you followed all the advice and it didn’t work, what’s up with that? That’s why this series is here, I hope it helps you see self-publishing in a new light.

Let’s pick up where we left off:

3. Adjust your expectations. You’re not going to build sustainable income with one book. Is it impossible? No but it’s highly unlikely. Almost all of the successful self-published authors have multiple books: Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Jasinda Wilder, Joe Konrath, Barry Eisler and the list goes on. If you click on the link for Joe Konrath, you’ll see he has self-published 40 books since 2009!

a. Realize your first book is just the beginning. What we’re building here is a house and the first book is the foundation of that house. From this first book you’re goal is to spring-board into more books and use the exposure from this book to launch other revenue streams. If you’re self-publishing a book, I’m going to assume you’re build something that you want to support you and your family one day, the first book is just the beginning. Instead of expecting it to be a NY Times best-seller or sell the same number of copies as an A-Lister you saw launch a book, set a realistic goal for yourself.

The number that I’m setting for the two case studies we’ll do at the end of this series and the goal I give my coaching clients is 1,000 books during launch week. That number isn’t crazy high and it’s not too low. Look at your book as a small piece in a big puzzle that will support you someday.

b. Launch other income streams. In this series we’re going to use the launch to not only sell a book but launch other income streams in our platform. If you’re a coach, we’re going to tie in your coaching business, if you’re a speaker, we’re going to tie in your speaking business. There’s so much exposure during your launch that it would crazy not to convert it for more than just your book. If you have a small platform, this can be the key to creating something that actually supports you and your family. We’re adjusting the expectation that this one book is going to be it, we’re realizing that we need more.

The best way to do this is cross promotion and packaging. What can you package with what to make the deal irresistible to the buyers? Again, I’m assuming you’re building a real business here, not just selling a book, so tying in your other offerings is a killer strategy to create good income during the launch.

c. Set goals, not dreams. This is the goal we’re setting for this series: 1,000 book sold during launch week. 1,000 books isn’t going to make you rich but it’s a good starting point and it’s decent income. You can use that number to spring-board your book in Amazon’s algorithm. That’s the goal I want you to set and plan how to achieve.

We’re also going to set other revenue goals. During the launch of my second book, Are You Living or Existing?, I wanted to sell books but I knew I had an opportunity. I packaged all my offerings and in the end added over 1,000 new people to my email list, I sold over $400 in other products on my website, I got $12,000 in new coaching business.

I don’t have a large platform, you can duplicate these results, seriously. Set goals for how much you will make on your other offerings and if you don’t have any other offerings, start putting them together now.

d. Realize you have more than one chance. If the launch doesn’t go as planned for you, this isn’t it. Self-publishing isn’t a race, it’s a marathon. Determine now that you’re going to be in this for the long haul. Determine that this is about building, not a get-rich-quick type of situation. If your launch didn’t go as planned, put together some better bonuses and offerings and relaunch your book.

4. Create killer bonuses. Typically we’re told to create two or three things we can offer people, the more things, the more appealing buying the book seems, wrong. Instead of creating or offering ten things no one really cares about, create two or three things that are specific to your target audience and that they really want. In this series we will get super specific and create things that blow our target audience minds. These will be for the customers, the launch team (we’ll get into what that is) will get a different set of bonuses. This is going to require some serious thought, planning and a bit of work to create something killer.

There’s a temptation to get a little lazy or even ask other people to contribute something to your launch. If they’re book or product doesn’t speak to your target audience, they’re not going to be interested. There’s a lot of books launch everyday with a lot of bonuses, people are on bonus overload, to get your book to stand out, you have to be different.

“Our goal isn’t to be better than our competition, our goal is to be different.” Steve Jobs  Click to Tweet

If your audience is young couples and your releasing a book on how young couples can survive the first years of marriage, you could create a downloadable weekly check list young couples can check every week to make sure they’re on track. You could interview ten couples that married young and have made it. Get their one tip to make a young marriage last and throw it into a video or downloadable PDF.

Those young couples would love material that they can actually use and some advice from people that have done what they hope to do, it’s super specific. Those would be better bonuses versus an ebook on a topic that’s not even close. We need to adjust our thinking that way, put ourselves in our audience shoes and create something they really want and need. When you do that, the results will be incredible.

This is the end of part two, I hope you’re getting value, I really want you to rock this self-publishing and online business building stuff. In part three we’ll start talking about the how-to stuff, come back and bring a friend!

What kind of response did your book get during launch week? 

 

How To Successfully Self-Publish Books With a Small Platform (Part 1)

Let’s start off with what makes me qualified to talk about this. Three years ago I self-published a book that completely flopped, it sold five copies in the first six months, I was devastated.

After almost having a nervous break down, I decided to pick myself up and become a student of self-publishing and online marketing. Three years later my two self-published books have sold over 82,000 copies and I have a traditionally published book.

I’ve hesitated to talk about self-publishing, writing is my passion but marketing definitely is not. The reason why I want to talk about this now is because there’s a lot of information out there but it’s not relevant unless you have a large platform.

I’ve read the posts from the A-Listers and it’s solid stuff but people read it and expect the same results. The launch strategies that some authors are using are to make the NY Times and other best sellers lists, it’s specific to larger platforms.

If you have a small platform, those strategies aren’t going to work. I want this series to be a help those who have tried to self-publish and haven’t gotten the results they wanted, the ones that followed the advice and it didn’t work for them.

I also want this to be a blueprint for those who want to self-publish. At the end of this series is going to be an opportunity to see if this strategy works. I’m going to give you a chance to be a part of a live demo.

What is a small platform?

I think the answer here can vary but for the purposes of this series I’m going to say anyone with less than 1,000 email subscribers. Once you get to 1,000 email subscribers you can really make significant income from your platform. The word platform just means your overall online presence: email list, social media fans/followers.

The Strategy: 

Understand who’s your target audience. This is for writing the book and marketing it. This is the key for everything we’ll do. If you’re not clear about who you’re talking to, you’ll never be able to figure out where they are and how to best reach them. Your book isn’t for everyone, you have to get it in front of the people who it’s meant for, that’s who will buy the book. Once you know who your target audience is, use that information to create a campaign that they can’t resist. 

Start building your platform ASAP (whether your book is out or not).

a. Build your traffic through targeted guest post. The key to effective guest posting is by being featured on sites that speak to your target audience. If you’re talking about real estate but guest post on a leadership blog, what do you think the results will be? When we have a smaller platform we want to be featured in as many places as possible but that’s not a good strategy. Good guest posting is targeted, it focus on converting. Good guest posting is also good for building back links to your site, which is good SEO.

b. Focus on a difference maker- conversions. If you have 20 people on your email list, focus on converting 15 of those 20 people. Too often we focus on getting new people when the reality is most of our sales come from our existing audience.

c. Basic SEO. Strong headlines that are simple and have good keywords. Mentioning the keywords you’re targeting in the first paragraph. Breaking up your content into chunks based off of the keywords.

d. Interviews. Blogtalk radio is your best friend when you’re starting out or have a small platform. There are thousands of shows, you type in the keywords related to your topic and see what shows are talking about your topic. Reach out to the hosts and highlight your story. Too often we want to jump in with why we’re a good fit for a show, let your story sell you. We all have a story to tell, it’s the reason we do what we do, highlight that.

e. Network with others in your industry. I’m not talking about trying to form a relationship with an A-Lister in your industry, too many people are trying that strategy. What I’m talking about is focusing on the Third tier and building your network from the ground up. Years ago guys like Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller and Michael Hyatt were friends who shared a same passion for this industry, they were friends and were there for each other during the building years, they built their network from the ground up. You have the same opportunity with those around you that might not have huge platforms but are building like you, what if you built together? Where would you guys be in ten years?

f. Social media. Beyond just having accounts set up, maximize social media by deciding where you’re going to be active and where you’re going to be present. You only have a limited amount of time and you can’t be everywhere. Research the platforms your audience is most active on and spend that little bit of time you have there. That’s where you’re active, present means you’re not active on the other ones but you post things from time to time. Give helpful tips and tricks on the non active sites. We’ll get more into social media later but it’s a great, free way to expose your book to the world. To build your platform through social media, give people a reason to come back, it has to be fresh and as original as possible. Don’t just copy what you see the A-Listers doing.

These are the basics but again, if you’re going to do this well with a small platform, you have to focus on conversions. It’s not about building large numbers, this is about building strong, targeted leads that will turn into customers later. If you only have 100 people but 80 of them buy, you’re in business, that’s our goal.

This will be the end of part one, come back Tuesday as we dive in and get really specific. Can you self-publish with a smaller platform and still sell books? Yes! What results have you gotten from self-publishing?

Today Our Dream Becomes a Reality

As you’re reading this, our family is on a plane somewhere over the United States. At 6 a.m. CST this morning, we left Milwaukee, Wisconsin for good. We’re on our way to our new home in Maui!

Our home in Maui

In April of 2010 my wife and I went to Maui as a long belated honeymoon. As soon as we got off the plane, we felt “something,” I can’t really explain it. As we enjoyed the trip, we started to talk about a crazy idea: why not retire here?

We got home and checked that idea away. In wasn’t until the death of my father in mid 2012 that the idea came back alive. His death woke me up to how short life really is and that I didn’t want to waste a single minute of it on dreaming, I had to act.

Getting to this flight has taken longer than we planned, we should have been there already, dreams are like that. You’ve read about this journey, the ups and the downs, it wasn’t easy but man, this is a sweet moment.

I’ll keep this brief, I am flying after all Understand that we can’t just dream, we have to do something about those dreams if they’re ever going to become a reality. For a long time I was caught in a dream world, like Walter in the movie: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

The tagline for that movie is stop dreaming, start living and it’s so true. We can’t live in a dream world, we have to work on things in the real world. This will be hardest thing you’ve ever done, it’s not going to go as planned, that’s life.

You know all of this but a reminder ever now and then doesn’t hurt. You can and will do this, we need you to believe. We need you to act. We need you to determine that you won’t let doubt, fear or failures break you, you’re doing this no matter what.

Determine that you will live life by your own design, you will strive to get to freedom. Family man, that time with your family is too important to live life any other way. I’m going to sign off, I’m using the airplanes wi-fi and we’re about to land at LAX.

Get ready

On Friday I’ll be starting a series on how to successfully self-publish a book when you have a small platform. There’s a lot of great information out there on how to self-publish but it’s from people who already have a large platform. I get asked daily how to do this and actually make money when you don’t have a large platform, so I’m going to show you. At the end of the series, you’ll have a chance to see this system demonstrated. Come back Friday and bring your author friends

Keep pushing forward, you’ll be in this very position soon enough. Where are you at with your dream? Please update us!

A Behind The Scenes Look At Living Your Dream

I did a webinar the other day about what life is like when you’re living your dream, it was fun! I get asked all the time about what life is like now that I’m not doing bread. Let’s just say, I don’t miss it!

If your dream is to have an online business that supports your family, here’s a sneak peek into what life could be like and what my days look like since leaving bread.

Mourning routine

I wake up everyday at 5 a.m. to get a run in, I normally run five miles a day. I get home, shower and have morning devotions. After that, I have tea and my wife has coffee, we spend a half hour every morning talking.

I make breakfast for the kids and we all enjoy breakfast together as a family. The kids get to school and I crack open my MacBook Pro and get to work.

Work routine

After some trial and error, I’ve worked out a pretty good flow. Let me tell you, once you’re completely supported by your online business, it can be a struggle to stay productive.

There are so many distractions that can easily keep you from getting stuff accomplished. Facebook is calling, TV is calling, answering email is calling, you really have to guard your time.

Monday’s are for 30 minute free coaching consultations. I get a lot of inquiries about coaching and people wonder if coaching is worth it. On that 30 minute call, I try to go over the top, I want people to walk away with actions steps they can use immediately.

If you’ve hit a wall in this journey, coaching may help you get over that wall. Most people look at how much coaching costs but if it gets you to your dream quicker and you generate income far above what you pay, wouldn’t that be worth it?

If you’re curious or want to see if I know what I’m talking about, schedule your free 30 minute consultation by emailing me at kconstable29@me.com. That 30 minutes WILL be worth your time.

Tuesday and Wednesday I reserve for content creation. I write two blog posts a week, I wrote two guest posts a week. I’m also writing my second book for my publisher, it’s about marriage. Right now I’m working on creating an online coaching course that covers the six main keys to building an online business, on the side, when you have a family.

Thursday and Friday are reserved for coaching. I normally work with 10 coaching clients a week, five on Thursday and five one Friday. I’ve been told that’s too much coaching but I love what I do and I love helping people put the pieces together.

I stay away from “working” on the weekends. When you’re working for yourself there can be a temptation to work all the time, you must have clear boundaries. The weekend is reserved for relaxing and spending time with my family and friends.

Now, this is just the base of the schedule, there’s a lot of stuff in between there. Like on Thursday and Friday in addition to coaching, I also evaluate my coaching clients platforms and give them feedback using a shared Google Document.

I also average about 90 emails a day and those alone could take a whole day to answer. So even though I have a set schedule for what I want to do, I sprinkle in email, social media here are there. I use things like the buffer app to schedule Twitter updates.

The best part of living your dream

If I could sum it up in one word: FREEDOM! If I wake up and don’t feel well, I don’t have to “work” and I still make money. I’m not trading time for dollars, I don’t have to answer to someone who’s on an ego trip.

I’m living life on my own terms and I’m spending time on the things that are important to me and my family. That’s what this is all about. Freedom and location independence, as I write this our family is all packed and set for the final stage of our Hawaii move in 4 days!

People on Maui asked me if I was moving there for work and I could proudly say I’m supported by my writing, speaking and online business, I don’t have to be anywhere for my “work.”

I know many of you are striving to get here and I want to encourage you to keep pushing forward because this dream life has been worth all the struggle. Don’t worry, if you keep working as hard as you are, you will get here.

What will you do on the first day of being completely supported by your dream?

3 Deadly Mindset Traps That Guarantee Failure

This is a guest post by Kevin Anthony Williams. He is a Career Coach and the author of Defining You, a coaching work book that will walk you through the process of clarifying your values. You can get a FREE download of Defining You, which also includes 45 minutes of FREE coaching by subscribing to his blog. You can also follow him on Twitter.

“Change your thoughts and you change your world.” – Norman Vincent Peale

So you have finally decided to stop merely talking about your dream and to start actively pursuing it. Congratulations! That one decision alone has propelled you into rarefied air. The sad truth is that most people never muster up enough courage to

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

step out of the talking phase and into the wild, uncharted territory that is the doing phase.

Action is what matters in any dream chasing journey.

So, why is it that some people seem unstoppable while others can’t seem to get off the couch?

In a word. Mindset.

When attempting to accomplish something unconventional whether that be starting a business, having a great marriage or getting out of debt you will frequently battle negative mindsets.

I find that the height of the mindset battle occurs immediately after getting out of bed. It is important therefore to have a strategy for dealing with the onslaught early.

When you conquer limiting mindsets early, you will be unstoppable for the rest of the day. When you don’t, the day will spiral out of control.

Based upon my experience encouraging and coaching others to achieve big dreams, I have found that there are at least three common mindset traps that pretty much guarantee failure.

Let’s expose these hidden dream killers for the lies that they are and discuss ways to defeat them:

Trap # 1: “It’s not my fault. I am in this situation because of what someone has failed to do for me.”

Why this mindset kills your dream:

This mindset robs you of your personal dignity. It is a posture of entitlement that turns many people away from helping you. I have yet to see someone who is successful in achieving their dreams eager to help someone who feels entitled. It actually has an opposite effect.

If you find yourself dealing with this mindset, you are not alone. The way to conquer it is by taking ownership of wherever you are in your life. Own your mistakes. Own your successes. Join a group of high achievers who will keep you accountable and who will not enable you to make excuses.

This leads me to trap # 2 which is similar in its entitlement angle.

Trap # 2: “It’s not my fault. I am this way because of what someone has done to me.”

Why this mindset will kill your dream:

Now I do not intend to dismiss any hardship you may have faced in your life due to the cruelty or neglect of others. Unfortunately, no one is able to go through life unscathed. So if you are facing a hurtful situation as a result of someone else’s cruelty, my heart goes out to you and I hope that you find the comfort and peace that you need.

That being said, if you allow this mindset to settle unaddressed, it will form deep roots in your thinking and produce bitter fruit. Like the first mindset trap, you will need a support group to stand with you and encourage you to keep moving forward.

You are too valuable to sit on the sidelines of life. Make a commitment to yourself that you will trust again. Draw on the support of your community. I have never met anyone who has built something of significance that has done it completely on her own.

The conventional way to deal with these first two mindset traps is to continue blaming others for the circumstances we find ourselves in. This is a safe choice and many choose this path.

The result is a life stuck in neutral and laden with regret, “would have”, “could have” and “should have.”

What a powerless position! By blaming others, you have relinquished your power to change and therefore remain stuck. The path less traveled, yet far superior, is to take personal responsibility for where you are now and where you are going.

This is how successful people think. They don’t have time to dwell on the past. They are too busy envisioning, planning and executing on the future.

Trap # 3: “Someday I’ll be successful”

Why this mindset will kill your dream:

There is absolutely no doubt in your mind that one day you will be successful. You can literally feel the anticipation and tell yourself that it is only a matter of time.

Faith in your abilities or the viability of a project or endeavor is a great thing. In fact, it is the genesis of all worthy accomplishments. However, faith alone is not enough, it must be accompanied by work.

2:30 in the morning type of work. The stuff that no one else sees.

Do the Work.

It will pay off eventually. Without corresponding action, your faith is meaningless.

Hey, no one ever said that being extraordinary would be easy. There are giants to fight and dragons to slay. The giants and dragons are 98% internal and only 2% external.

Most people spend most of their life fighting or blaming the external forces (government, co-workers, gatekeepers, upbringing, etc..) while losing the real battle – the inner battle of the mind.

Don’t be like most people!! Decide To Be Remarkable

While I have only listed three counterproductive mindsets that need to be conquered, you can be assured that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands more of these attitudes just waiting to take you down a path of failure, regret and hopelessness.

Don’t give in to these mindsets.

Resist them.

Form new ones.

So, what negative mindset will you banish from your thinking? What positive mindsets will you intentionally form this week that will help you achieve your big dream? 

Welcome!

A special welcome to those visiting from Inspire Me Today, I’m thrilled to have you here! This website is dedicated to helping you live life on your own terms and create freedom. Life is far too short to waste it on the things that aren’t important to you and your family.

Here I talk about the dream chasing journey: the ups and downs and how to get through them, some tips on what to expect. My goal is for you to live your dream and get that freedom you’re craving and I won’t stop until everyone who reads this blog does. Be sure to sign up for email updates so you don’t miss a single thing and you’ll get a couple of cool thank you gifts.

I’m here to help, you can reach me directly at kconstable29@me.com, I answer every email. Send a message and let me know where you are in your dream chasing journey and what are some of your biggest struggles, I’d love to help!

Peace out,

Kimanzi

How To Keep Your Dream From Failing

Have successful people ever failed?

The answer is yes and one of the most famous incidents is Thomas Edison creating the light bulb. It’s said that it took him 1,000 tries before he got it right. There are cases after cases of successful people failing but pushing forward anyway.

After my first book failed, after the first negative review, after the first time I spoke and sucked, I had a decision to make and I chose to push forward towards my dream. I still had crazy doubt and fear, I still didn’t fully believe in myself but my dream was too important to give up.

You have a choice to make, except a failure or move forward with your dream?

The stories we hear most of the time are about those that accepted defeat, like those stats about how many books most authors sell. These stats and stories don’t have to be your story.

You have the power to choose what your story will be by how you respond during times when you experience a failure. How should you respond?

Get back up and take it one day at a time. When we focus on the big picture, it can be overwhelming, seemingly impossible. When we wake up and just focus on what we have to do that day, impossibility is gone.

When we focus on those tasks each day, we get things done and we get closer and closer to our dream. Will we still experience failure during some of those days? Yes! The key is to go to bed and wake up determined to make that day better than the last.

Could you image what life would be like if Thomas Edison quit? Life could be just as bad if you quit doing what you’re doing. If you quit spreading your message that brings hope to people, doubt and fear win and lives will be affected.

You have the power, you don’t have to accept failure. If your book hasn’t sold how you expected it to, if your online business isn’t growing as fast as you want it to, don’t give up. Figure out what and where you can do better and get to work!

Remember, it’s the daily grind, it’s that hard work, that sweat and tears that makes your dream a reality. This is just a reminder but one you need to believe if you’re going to make this thing happen this year.

What is one failure you’ve experienced so far this year?