Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 158

5 Commitments I Made at Experts Academy

Gail and I just got back from Experts Academy in Santa Clara, California. During this amazing conference, I made five commitments I know are going to have a huge impact on me in the next 12 months. They weren’t easy, but I know they are necessary.

Some of these are pretty radical, especially if you know how much I love public speaking. But these are the kinds of decisions I have to make if I am going to go to the next level.

But there’s a lesson in this for you, too. If results follow actions, then the only way to get different results is to take different actions. Hopefully, this post will cause you to reevaluate your own commitments in light of the results you want.

Click here to read the whole post. Better yet, subscribe to to my e-mail newsletter and get my full posts delivered to your inbox.

7 Books to Read If You Want a Systematized Business That Runs Without You Successfully [Link]

7 Books to Read If You Want a Systematized Business That Runs Without You Successfully














SweetProcess Blog

September 19, 2013

This is a fabulous list of books on business process and workflow. I’ve read several and recommended them to others. I just downloaded a couple of more, including the Checklist Manifesto, which sounds like something that will be helpful in this stage of my business.

Ann Handley on Facing Your Fears [Slide]

If you can’t see this slideshow in your RSS reader or email, then click here.













Do you follow your fears, or run from them? In this SlideShare presentation, Ann Handley states that it’s important to follow your fears because oftentimes the things that scare you the most are the ones most worth doing.

Question: Can you think of a time when you faced a major fear and came out better in the end because of it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

How Do You Become an Overnight Success? [Link]

How Do You Become an Overnight Success?














Jon Gordon

9/16/2013

Successful people make it look easy. But most people aren’t aware that “overnight successes” are usually years in the making. Jon Gordon explains in this inspiring post.

Pray and Work [Quote]

Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man.














Francis Cardinal Spellman

The Power of Words [Video]

If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.







Watch this touching video The Power of Words, to see how changing just a few words can make a dramatic difference in your life and in the lives of those around you.

Question: Can you think of a time when words have had a major impact on you or on those around you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

How to Get Rid of Professional Isolation and Loneliness—for Good

As the CEO of a large corporation, I surrounded myself with a leadership team that helped me stay energized, focused on our goals, and ready for the challenges that come in the marketplace.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/{Insert Photographer’s Name}

But when I started the next chapter of my life as a full-time author, blogger, and platform-builder, I suddenly found myself without the benefits of that community. I didn’t realize how important that was to me until it was gone. Honestly, there were times the road felt pretty lonely.



If you’re a blogger, solopreneur, or speaker, I bet you can identify with that. For many of us, we do our work in isolation, at odd hours, without the kind of workplace community that helps us feel connected and grow.

That’s when I realized I needed to be intentional about surrounding myself with other entrepreneurs—people like me, people who were building their own platforms, people who were driven and could help push me and keep me motivated.

Corporations create community by accident. They just collect a lot of heads under one umbrella.

I wanted to purposefully create a shared learning environment. I figured if I felt this way, others must as well. So why not make room for people like me to learn about growing their platform, while also making space for us to support and share with one another?

That’s why I created Platform University, and it’s succeeded beyond my expectations.

You can join now before the price goes up on Friday. I’ll tell you more about that in a minute.

I’d like to highlight some of the tremendous progress our members are making. Some are just starting out. Others have a lot more experience. But all of them are moving the needle—and that inspires me to keep moving forward myself.

So join me in the comments in congratulating these members for their progress and contribution to the Platform University community:

Tammy Helfrich didn’t have any previous experience, but Tammy recently launched her own podcast and is off to a great start. She has now recorded almost twenty episodes and is connecting with her audience is a whole new way. Way to go Tammy!
Jonathan Milligan decided to form a group of likeminded individuals from within the community. He assembled a mastermind of individuals at similar places in their platform-building journeys, assigned roles, and scheduled regular meetings. He then laid out his entire strategy in the community forums so others can replicate the groups’ success.
Chad Allen was able to go from generating 147 email subscription in a year to 276 in one day by adding a simple email incentive using OptinSkin. Additionally, Chad’s traffic tripled from 450 visits in a day to over 1,450. And like Jonathan, he outlines each step of his process in his recent forum post. Amazing progress.
Matt Law launched a new blog and received over 1,400 unique visitors in just 30 days. As he explains in a recent forum post, his strategy included both video and incentives. The successful launch resulted in an additional $12,000 in revenue. Now that’s inspiring!

What will your success story be when you get plugged into a community like this? Maybe you’ll start a podcast, launch a successful book project, or see a huge spike in your blog traffic.

Whatever you do, with a community like the one we have at Platform University, you’ll get to your next inflection point faster than you can on your own.

Most importantly, you won’t be on your own anymore. You’ll be surrounded by a group of likeminded peers ready to celebrate your wins, encourage you to keep going when things get tough, and cheer you on to new heights.

But hurry! As you probably already know, Thursday, September 12th, is the last day to become a member of Platform University for the low price of $25 a month. The price goes up on Friday to $30 a month.

Join now and save $60 per year ($5 per month). That’s less than 85¢ a day. And you can always cancel your membership at any time.

Join Now Before the Price Goes Up

Question: How could a community of like-minded people benefit you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
 

No New Podcast for a Few Weeks [Announcement]

No New Podcast for a Few Weeks

I will not be publishing a new podcast until October 2nd. I am working hard with my team to finish a couple of really exciting, but demanding projects. I am making the choice to invest my hours in these and skip the podcast for a few weeks.

Thanks for your support. I look forward to connecting with you soon. I will continue to publish my blog on Mondays and Fridays.

Adventure or Inconvenience — GK Chesterton [Quote]

An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered.














G. K. Chesterton

Is Your Destiny Leaving You Clues?

When you experience an involuntary emotional response, whether positive or negative, it is often a clue. You have stumbled onto something that will lead you toward or away from your destiny. It’s important to pay attention.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/bns124

For example, not many people know I majored in music for my first two years of college. I played guitar, piano, and bass. Music was my life. It was all I ever thought about.

For my junior year, I transferred from my small junior college to Baylor University. I was excited, because the music school was legendary. But I quickly discovered that I was just one aspiring musician in a sea of extraordinary players.

Giving in to Fear

The competition scared me. By the end of the first semester I threw in the towel, switched majors, and sold my instruments. I essentially kissed music good-bye.

I thought I was being “practical.” But it was mostly about fear.

I quickly refocused my energy on other things. I discovered new passions, including my love of books and learning. This eventually led to a very satisfying career in the book publishing industry.

But something was lost.

Over the years, I occasionally played the guitar or the piano. But it was rare. I just didn’t allow myself to go there. In fact, I haven’t owned a guitar since college, though I have bought a couple for my children.

Last week, my daughter, Madeline, and her husband Shawn came over for dinner. Madeline brought her guitar and asked if I could help her learn a song by the artist Mree. It was in an unusual tuning, and she couldn’t figure it out.

We worked on it for about ten minutes and determined the artist was using an “open D tuning.” We didn’t learn the whole song, but we played what we knew for Gail and Shawn. (I still had cheap guitar at the house that one of my other daughters had abandoned years ago.)

When Madeline started singing, I cried.

The emotion surprised me. Something was resonating within me at a very deep level. I sensed something in my heart had just woken up after a very long sleep.

Reclaiming Something Lost

That evening, I started shopping online for guitars. The whole while a little voice in my head kept saying, This is silly. You’re not going to buy a guitar. It’s been too long. You’ve forgotten too much. Besides, you don’t have the time.

But I persisted.

As we were getting ready for bed, I spoke to Gail about it. She said, “You need to pay attention to this, Mike. I don’t know why, but you need to buy a guitar. I feel strongly about this.” (You gotta love that in a wife.)

The next morning, Madeline and I met at the Guitar Center in Nashville. It’s a giant superstore for musicians. It has every model of guitar you could imagine for sale. Frankly, it was overwhelming.

However, we met a very knowledgable, low-key salesman named Rob in the acoustic guitar department. He gave us a helpful overview and explained what had transpired in the thirty-plus years I had been out of the market.

I then sat down and played about a dozen different guitars. So much came back to me. My brain was flooded with memories. I reconnected with a joy I hadn’t known in years.

After almost an hour, I pulled a Martin HD-28V from the wall and sat back down to play it. I immediately teared up. Again, the emotion surprised me. I knew this was “the one.”

Just to be sure, I tried several other guitars, testing each of them against the Martin. However, nothing else sounded as sweet or felt as comfortable as it. So I took a deep breath, looked at Madeline for assurance, and bought it!

I played so much that first day, my fingers were blistered. I have had a blast just getting acquainted with the instrument and relearning some of what I had forgotten.

More Than We Know

Honestly, I don’t know where all this is going. I have no illusions about playing professionally, but I do think it is important to pay attention to the resonance of this moment. There is something here for me to learn and experience.

But it’s not just me. I believe each of us is more than we know.

One of the ways we figure this out is by noticing what stirs us emotionally. This is a step in moving toward our destiny and becoming all God made us to be.

Question: Where have you recently experienced unexpected emotion? What have you learned from it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.