Kimanzi Constable's Blog, page 53

Finish This Year Strong

Well, it’s the afternoon time on Monday and I’m writing this post with ice on my legs. Why do you ask?

Before this month began my friend William challenged me to run 200 miles this month. We have had little challenges here and there, so he wanted one major one that would be a real challenge to hit.

Today is the end of the first week and as you can see from the picture, I’ve run 64 miles in seven days, crazy I know!

It’s about a little more

While I’ve enjoyed the challenge and the trash talking between us, this is about more than a running challenge.

As you may know, I’m on a weight loss journey right now and running is great cardio. So I wanted to update you on where I’m at: in the last 104 days I’ve lost 104 pounds, crazy!

It’s been great but I’ve still got a long way to go. Right now I weigh 266 pounds and I still want to lose 66 more pounds.

I’ve run my legs off and had a great, portion-controlled diet. The results have been life-changing.

How will you finish?

It’s October right now and we have less than three months this year to hit all those goals we set, how are you doing?

This is the perfect time to kick up the intensity, this is the right time to finish stronger than you’ve ever finished before.

No matter where you’re at right now, you can do this. Evaluate where you’re at and see what it will take to finish all your goals strong.

Let this post be the extra kick in the pants you need, let’s do this!

How are you doing with the goals you set at the beginning of the year?

Making Money Online

I know, I know, when you read a title like this your guard goes up, it seems scammy. Hear me out though, lets take a realistic look.

Over the last three years, I’ve come to see that it’s possible to make money online doing something that you’re passionate about. I started with an ebook that completely flopped at first, it sold five copies in the first six months.

I figured a few things out and released a second book, to date both books have now sold over 80,000 copies. If you’re not familiar with my story, check it out and come back

Now, the income from the books was good and our family used the money to pay off a bunch of debt. That brought us back to square one, we needed to figure out a way to make consistent income.

The first few dollars

There are many angles I could take with talking about making money online and I’m sure if you continue to read this blog, we’ll take many angles. What I want to talk about is a smart strategy for the best way to make those first few dollars and build upon that.

If this isn’t for you, I understand

I think you’ve seen in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been shifting direction of this blog and website. After thinking things through, I realized I was far too general.

I’ve been thinking about who I really want to help. I really want to help those with families, who have a day job but dream of freedom.

Their dream is something online, something where they’re not tied down, they want to be location independent. They want to make their online dreams a reality without putting their family in a tight spot. If you don’t fall into this group, I still think this content will be relevant to you but if it’s not, no hard feelings.

The first lesson

If you want to make money online, the first thing you have to figure out is what’s your passion? Who are you talking to and what can you create that will actually bring value to who you’re talking to?

If I would have learned this lesson three years ago, man life would be good right now. The more specific you get, the better.

A great example of this is my friend Ngina, she wrote about marriage but has recently decided to get more specific and help people in the “early stages of marriage.” I’m watching her journey with excitement because I know great things are coming.

Since getting more specific, she can search for where newlyweds are online and see how she can add value.

She can get specific information on some of the issues newlyweds face and create products and services that help newlyweds get through those issues.

If she is creating those very specific things that solve specific problems, why wouldn’t newlyweds buy them?

There are over 200 million blogs and a lot of them are the same, getting clear about who you want to help is what will separate you from everyone else.

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Are you clear about who you’re talking to?

Don’t miss on going training on how to create your freedom based, location independent online business (plus you’ll get a couple of cool gifts):

 

Focus on one area at a time

I have a lot of passions. I love to write, speak, coach, create products and host events, it can be very easy to try to do all of these things at the same time.

More than that, my mind says to spend a little bit of time each day, working on all of these areas and for two years I did.

I set a specific schedule for sending out speaking proposals, for creating products and for getting new coaching clients. I did see some success but not as much success as I’m seeing now.

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine, who is an amazing business coach. He evaluated my business and gave me some perspective-changing advice.

What we determined was my coaching was generating the most income, so if I wanted to double my business, focus on the coaching.

Once I doubled my coaching income, move onto the next most profitable area and so on. By using this approach we went from making roughly $2,900 a month with our business to now making $5,900 a month.

I don’t share numbers to brag, I only hope to help and motivate. Once the coaching income grew, I started to focus on speaking. I was able to raise my speaking fee from $1,000 an event to $4,000 an event plus my expenses paid.

The speaking was incredible this year. I spoke in Israel, Atlanta, Kentucky, Washington D.C., Milwaukee, Arkansas, Kenya, London and Paris. It really was a good year Now I’m moving onto the next area of focus.

Resist the temptation

I know you want to write, speak, create things and a bunch of other stuff. My advice and what has worked, is focusing on one area at a time, getting real specific (notice a theme).

My goal for you is to make money, so pick the area you feel most comfortable to handle and get to it. Once you make a few bucks, build upon that, set specific income goals that you strive to hit.

Once you hit your goals, move onto the next area. The cool thing is before you know it, you’ll have a real business that can give you that freedom you’re craving.

So….. Where are you going to start or pivot?

I hope this has been helpful, if you have any specific questions, please email me at kconstable29@me.com. I would also be willing to get on the phone and talk it through if you’ve got a few minutes.

What is one area you could focus on right now that would generate a couple of bucks?

What’s Important Right Now

Well, it’s mid afternoon on a Sunday and I’m enjoying some delicious lemonade, how are you doing?

As I was thinking about the upcoming week, I thought about what would be important to get done this week. More than that, what would I focus on that would get the best results and help support my family.

Starting out

When I first started chasing my dream of having a location independent online business, I went down a thousand different roads.

I read so many amazing blogs everyday, I listened to great podcasts. Whenever I heard a new, good idea, I would want to implement it right away.

I spent the first year, of the three years that it took me to reach freedom, on things that weren’t necessary to make my dream a reality.

If you are starting out or even if you’ve been on the journey for a while, then really think about what’s important to your dream right now.

The bottom line

Let’s just cut to the chase, if you want your dream to support you, it has to generate income.

Spare a Tweet?

So…. When you read something or learn something new, before you implement it, you have to ask will this bring in income. If what you’re doing is a nonprofit sort of situation, then that’s obviously different.

The reason so many dreams take so many years to become a reality is because we focus on the wrong things.

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The simple math

One thing that really changed the way I think is the simple math. It really doesn’t take a lot of money before it adds up to a decent income.

I remember the first month I made “enough” money, when I say enough, I mean enough to support myself, my wife and three kids.

Don’t miss on going training on how to create your freedom based, location independent online business (plus you’ll get a couple of cool gifts):

 

What really helped was sitting down and looking at the numbers:

How much were our bills?
How much “play” money would we budget?
How much money did we want to save?

After getting those numbers and adding them together, we would need to make $2,800 a month with our online business.

Have you done the simple math?

Once you do, I think you’ll be surprised. You’ll find that it’s not as hard as your doubts told you it would be, you’ll see that you’re closer then you think.

Think about this

When we think about having our dream support us, we think big. We have to have ten clients, we have to have 100,000 people visiting our website. We have to have a huge social media following to draw traffic to our online business.

Instead of trying to do all of that, focus on getting that first customer, focus on making your first dollar. Once you do that, focus on making or getting the second one and so on.

One leads to two, two leads to three. Once you get the first one, you’re officially what you want to be. So then it all goes back to what’s important right now?

Getting serious

Your dream doesn’t have to take five years, you can be living that life of freedom sooner, if you focus on what’s important right now.

When I coach, I tell my clients that they can be fully supported by they’re online dream with in one year and I mean that.

The key is to do and learn the things you need to make income right now. Get serious, change your mindset and start making that dream a reality one dollar at a time.

What is one thing that is important to your dream right now?

P.S. Have you signed up for updates yet?

 

Making Enough Time For Your Dream

I don’t need to tell you that there never seems to be enough time, am I right?

When I first started chasing my dream, I was convinced I needed another 168 hours in a week. I had a full-time job, I have a wife and three children, church, activities and a lot of responsibilities.

In the midst of all that chaos, where would I find time create my online business that someday would support our family?

To make matters worse, my wife wasn’t fully on board. One of my biggest problems is I like to jump head first, a lot of times without including her. So as I had any spare time, I would work on my dream and ignore her.

Can you see why she wasn’t on board?

Here’s the thing though, I knew that if I wanted my dream of creating a freedom based, location independent online business to become a reality, I would have to make sacrifices.

I’m afraid it will be the same way for you, if you want to make your dream a reality and you have a full plate, what are you going to sacrifice?

Sometimes it’s the things you don’t think about

Back in the day, I used to be addicted to TV, I had a full DVR and watched every show. When it was time to make more time for my dream, TV was one sacrifice I had to make.

What is that thing in your life that you could sacrifice without greatly affecting your life? Is it TV? Is it too much time on social media? Only you know what those things are.

Want to make your dreams a reality sooner? Evaluate how you’re spending your free time, where can you cut? The key is once you make those cuts, make sure you’re using that time for your dream.

It doesn’t have to be forever

Just because you’re giving something up right now, doesn’t mean you have to give to up forever. What I’m taking about is short term sacrifices for a greater purpose.

When planning your transition from your day job to freedom, you should have a vision for what things will look like and roughly how long it will take. This is a larger version of goal setting: dream edition.

As you’re in that time-period, make those short term sacrifices for now. Once you’re fully living your freedom based dream, you can do what you want

You have to be honest and focus on your why

If this is going to work, if you’re going to make those dreams a reality, you have to be honest with yourself. What do you really need in your life right now? What could you do without?

Focusing on your “why” will be the fuel in your dream tank, it will help you make those short term sacrifices. Once you hunker down and focus, the results will surprise you and you’ll be that much closer to your dream.

What is one thing that you need to sacrifice right now to have more time to work on your dream? 

 

Who Am I Talking To?

Well, it’s been a crazy three years. There may even be some here that have been with me since July of 2011 when I first started writing.

I didn’t want to start writing, all my doubts and fears kept telling me I would suck, so I listened to them. When I did start writing, no one listened, no one knew I was alive. I know there are some reading this that can relate.

Over the last three years I’ve figured out a few things about writing, social media, the Internet and truly connecting with people. I’ve always strived to keep learning and growing and this last trip was no exception.

My wife and I went to Kenya, London and Paris (I was speaking), so there was a bunch of time on planes and buses. During that time, I read a book that opened my mind to something that I thought I knew but really didn’t understand.

That certain group of people

I know there are a good number of bloggers that read my blog and there’s something you should understand: you have to know who you’re talking to. I thought I understood what this meant but I learned something about this.

The reason most authors don’t sell books, the reason most bloggers don’t get noticed is because we aren’t clear about who we’re talking to. Your writing or whatever your dream is, doesn’t apply to everyone, you have to find that specific group of people it does apply to.

You have to get specific because the more specific you get, the better you can help that group of people. How old are they? Where are they from? More importantly, how can you best help them?

Who I’m talking to

To be honest, for a while I’ve felt like I haven’t been clear about who I’m talking to and what I’m talking about. I’ve been a little scattered brained with my writing, which means I not helping as much as I could.

The specific group of people I want to help looks like this:

They are between the ages of 30 to 55, they have families. They already have a “job” or business but dream and are chasing something “more.” Their dream will give them freedom.

Freedom to live life on their terms, freedom to travel maybe? Their dream may be something online, an online business that they can use to be location independent.

They have doubts and fears and worry their dream can’t support their family. They worry about the hundred things that can go wrong or keep them from their dream. They are chasing their dream on the side.

Now this doesn’t mean that if you don’t fit into this group that you can’t get value from this site. I love helping people and want to help as many as possible. My goal is to get real specific for the rest of this year, addressing issue’s and helping you chase your dream on the side.

How can I best help you?

So as I get specific, please let me know if there’s anyway I can help you chase your dream on the side, especially if you’re part of that specific group. Please email me questions or reach out on social media, don’t hesitate.

My book

If you haven’t purchased my book yet or if you want to gift a copy, I wanted to let you know about a change I’m making to the bonuses. Since I’m getting more specific, I want the bonuses of the book to be relevant.

So…. If you purchase my book, forward a copy of your receipt to kconstable29@me.com and you’ll get these things as a thank you:

A digital copy of the book

A digital copy of my first book

Results coaching package ($197 value)

This package includes:

1 One-hour Skype/Google Hangout/Regular Old Phone sessions

Email access for 1 month where you can ask anything 

An evaluation of where you currently are in your dream chasing journey and a game plan to get to where you want to go. This will be a realistic, step by step plan that will get you there.

Results, that’s what this is all about, tangible, measurable results. I’m committed to you living out your dream, that’s where this coaching will lead you.

I really want to see people make those dreams a reality, so that’s why I’m throwing the coaching in. That’s it, if you buy a $15 book you’ll get over $200 in free stuff.

Are you chasing a dream right now? What are some things keeping you from that dream? Is there anything you could use help with?

Greetings From Kenya, London and Paris!

Amsterdam

What’s up? It’s been a little while but for a good reason. First, welcome to those visiting from Entrepreneur On Fire where I had the pleasure of interviewing with my friend John Lee Dumas. I’m a huge fan of the show, so it was an honor to be on it. If you missed the interview, you can hear it here.

So….. for the last two and a half weeks I have been all over the world, literally! On this trip I brought my wife since this year is our 15 year wedding anniversary. We started in Amsterdam and had a blast walking the streets and eating, too much eating

We then went to Kenya, this was my wife’s first time out of the

Market in Kenya

country, so Kenya was an interesting place for her. I spoke in Kenya, then spent the rest of the time with family. Some highlights were taking an eight-hour bus ride from Nairobi (the capital) to Mombasa (the coast). We spent six amazing days with family and friends, they were really welcoming to my wife.

After Kenya, we flew to London. I spoke to a standing room only crowd there, it was great! We spent five days there and saw all the popular sites

London Eye

After London we took a 10 hour bus ride from London to Paris. It was cool crossing the English Channel on a ferry. On the way back home the bus went into a train, that went under the English Channel, it took half the time and was super cool.

In Paris I spoke twice but with how English is spoken in the country, it was hard to gauge how it went. They did ask me to come back I also made this video for you in Paris:

I won’t take up too much of your time with this post, I’ve got a lot that I learned and want to share with you the rest of this year.

What I do want to say is that if a former bread guy can become a best-selling author and international speaker, I’m convinced and know you can make your dreams a reality!

Peace, I’m out!

I’m Terrified of Moving to Hawaii

If you’ve read my book or spent anytime on my website, then you know one of my family’s goals is to move to Hawaii.

If we had followed the plan, we would already be there but things don’t always work out as planned. That’s OK.

Here we are, a year later and things have started to move forward. We took a big step this week and we put some money down on a place on the Big Island of Hawaii.

It feels so amazing, it feels like things are starting to get real but I have to be honest, I’m absolutely terrified! I should be excited, right?

This is my dream after all but as we keep taking these steps, the fear is screaming louder and louder in my mind. All those doubts are surfacing again.

The last three years have been unbelievable, I have to pinch myself sometimes to see if I’m just dreaming. Despite that, the dream chasing journey is hard and scary. Really scary!

Dealing with fear

We all deal with fear, even more than we want to admit. Fear will always be there and that’s not a bad thing, it keeps us from making rash decisions.

Here’s the thing about dealing with fear, you can control it by taking some necessary steps:

Be certain about what your dream is: Too many times we think we want this and that but when we get serious and really think about things, we realize the truth. Get some counsel, pray about it, get clear.
Put together a solid game plan: Your dream is only as good as your plan. The beauty of our day and age is all the information that is available at our fingertips. We can research our dream and put together a realistic plan. This is one of the areas I’m constantly working on with my coaching clients.
Take small steps: Too often we want to jump, we want what we want right now. Taking smaller steps first helps us see the road clearly, it helps us see any weak points in the plan.

What if I listened to my fear?

As I’m writing this post, my wife is packing her bags. Today is Monday (Labor day) and on Wednesday we leave for a 3 week trip to Kenya, London and Paris.

I will be speaking in all three countries, it’s pretty incredible and mind-blowing to me. If I had listened to my fear this trip wouldn’t be happening.

If I had listened to my fear, I would still be living a life of simply existing. If I had listened to my fear, I would have never gone up on stage that first time and would have never followed my dream of being a speaker.

So many things would have never happened if I listened to my doubt/fears and I know they’ll never happen for you if you listen to your doubts and your fears.

Where are you at now? Where do you want to be?

You’ll never get there if you listen to fear. You’ll never get to that next level if you listen to fear.

List out your fears

I can’t let you go without giving you a little homework. I want you to get a piece of paper or iPad or whatever you use and write down all of your fears related to your dream.

This isn’t a final list, you may forget or miss some, that’s OK. Right after you read this post, make that list, writing down as many fears as you can think about.

Then, keep this list somewhere as motivation and as a planning tool. As you plan out your dream, see if your plan addresses some or most of the things on this list. Trust me, it will help!

What are some fears related to your dream?

You’re Not My Favorite Blogger

So…. My wife and I had an interesting conversation the other day. She forwarded me an email of a blog post from a blog she likes.

I looked at the post and said it was good, she made an off-hand comment saying that person was her favorite blogger. What?

I asked her about me and she laughed, what am I chopped liver? It really got me thinking about what we do and who likes or cares about “our thing.”

Your thing isn’t for everybody

Whatever you’re working on, whatever your dream is, not everyone will be your cheerleaders. This isn’t ground breaking information but really think about it.

You pour your heart and soul into a thing, your thing and people get behind it, they tell you it’s great. However, they are the few people that aren’t fans or more than that, you come across some haters.

Realize that everyone isn’t your fan but be prepared to deal with the haters. You know all of this and you might even know what to do but it still hurts, it still irritates you, right?

Your thing is for a specific group of people and the more specific you get the better. When you’re very specific, you can specifically address the needs and issues of that very specific group.

So, help that group with what you do and when the haters or those that don’t understand what you’re doing come, smile and keep doing what you do.

Your thing is bigger then the haters

I have one really dedicated hater, you’ve probably seen them comment on this blog or my guest posts Here is their work at its finest:

As you can see, they left the review with a pen name. Now you would think that would be enough but they then went on to agree with their own review:

 

Seeing this made my blood red, I wanted to call the President and have him shut down Amazon but I know that’s not reality. After calming down, I had the remember the very stuff I write about.

The biggest I remembered was I’m not writing for this hater, I’m writing to help those that are where I was at. I have to focus on writing and creating things that help those people, the haters can go eat some cake (not sure what that means)!

Your dream, whatever it is, is not for them and it’s bigger then all those people who want to hold you back. Ignore them, talk about your feelings with your inner circle, then move on and keep doing what you’re doing.

It’s all right!

It’s ok that I’m not my wife’s favorite blogger and it’s ok that this person thinks I suck, I have goals, I have work to do and I’m going to keep doing that work.

You have to get ok with it too. Definitely let those emotions out, be honest with how you feel. Once you get through that, keep pushing forward, keep building your thing.

Pour your heart and soul into that thing, give it all you’ve got, add value and serve others. As long as you’re honest and really trying to help, what can those haters really say? They have NO case!

What will you do when faced with haters?

One Key To Accomplishing All of Your Goals

There’s a ton of great information out there about goal setting and about how to accomplish those big hairy goals you set for yourself at the beginning of this year.

Yet with all this great information we still struggle, right? I’ll be the first to admit that I set goals and miss the mark.

I told you about my weight, it has been one of my biggest struggles in the last three years. I’m writing this post on Saturday, August 16th and I just had my normal Saturday weigh in.

In the last 56 days I’ve lost 50 pounds, and it feels great. This Tuesday I’ll be running in my very first 5k with a friend. I’m determined but there has been one thing that has helped me get closer to my big hairy goal of losing 170 pounds:

Seting smaller, reachable goals

Wow, that wasn’t earth scattering but let’s get into it a little and my goal (like what I did there) is for you to walk away with an idea you can start applying today.

Losing 170 pounds is a crazy big goal and to get there I could easily get discouraged, lose focus then give up. To keep myself on track and motivated, I tied my big goal to something that is coming up in our lives.

On September 4th my wife and I will be leaving for a three-week speaking tour, we’ll be heading to Kenya, London and Paris. When I thought about this trip, the first thought that came to my mind was the airplane seat.

If you have traveled on an airplane recently, you know those seats aren’t meant for bigger people. Every flight I take (and I fly a lot) it’s a struggle to get comfortable.

I saw this trip on the schedule and set a smaller goal of losing 60 pounds by the time I sit in one of those seats for a long international flight. As it stands right now, I’m 10 pounds away from that goal.

At the writing of this post I have 18 days to lose those final 10 pounds. Each week as I get closer to that smaller goal, I push even harder. Each week I get closer to my smaller, reachable goal which will eventual get me to my big hairy goal.

This can work for you

What are your goals for the rest of this year, the next five years, the rest of your life? Is your main goal to stop existing and truly live?

Whatever your goals are, they’re going to take some time and a bunch of work but they are possible.

Look at those goals, plan them out and see where you can set some smaller goals. If you want to lose weight, set a bench mark (i.e. 40 pounds in the next six months).

If you want to live out a dream that will support you, plan to make a certain amount of income by a certain date. You get the picture.

Hitting some smaller goals will feel incredible and will give you the motivation to pusher harder and keep pushing forward.

Setting those smaller goals could also help you see some new and maybe a better aspect of hitting the larger goal.

That’s it, I won’t take up any more of your time. Set those larger goals but make sure to set the smaller benchmark goals, they’ll be the gas in your gas tank of your dream chasing car. Cheesy, I know

What are some smaller goals you can set right now?

How To Get Over Information Overload

We live in a pretty incredible time, we have the knowledge of the entire world in our pockets, if we have a smart phone.

If you want to learn anything, you can hop on the Internet and literally read thousands of articles, listen to hundreds of podcasts or watch videos. It’s amazing but can be a problem.

Lets say you decide to chase your dream and you start to research it. You start off slow but get deeper into the research, every time you search, you discover something new and amazing. Do you see how this could be a problem?

I’ll give you an example. Three years ago when I started chasing my dream of being a writer, I got online and my eyes were opened. There was so much amazing content that I was confident I could make this dream a reality.

However, after spending months reading and planning, it was time to put some of this into action and I couldn’t, I didn’t know where to start! I had a severe case of information overload.

So what is it and how can you get over it? Let’s keep it simple:

All Learning and not doing

Brendon Burchard says “An expert is a student first” which means we should always keep learning. No matter where you’re at in the process, there will always be more room to learn and grow.

However, when all you’re doing is learning without any implementing, you’re not making any progress towards anything. Worse than that, if all you do is learn, you may be getting overwhelmed with which direction to move in.

There are many potential roads that will take you to where you want to go but only one that you need to go down at this very moment.

Tweetable?

So that’s what information overload can be but what can you do to get over it?

Every time you learn something, implement it right away

So there’s a simple and effective system for getting over information overload and taking one step closer to your dream.

When you learn something that’s relevant and useful to what you’re trying to accomplish, implement it right away. That’s pretty simple, right?

If you have been learning and researching for a while but not taking action, today has to be your day to do it.

All the information in the world is useless without any action.

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The point of learning all this information is to use it to take action and make those dreams a reality. Make sense Continuing to learn and not acting can be an excuse or a symptom of you listening to all those doubts and fears. Learn, then act.

So as you read this and think about where you’re at right now, where do you fall? The more action you take, the closer you get.

Have you or are you experiencing information overload?