New Release - The Content Entrepreneur
Just arrived yesterday. A lot of work editing. Turned out pretty nice...
This was what I filled my otherwise idle hours this past summer. Got this all together and I just received proofs of what we’d done. 33 of us contributed articles from our expertise. I just helped cobble it together as a volunteer editor.
Here’s the first chapter in that book. One that I contributed:
Getting Started as a Content-Entrepreneur
You have one advantage over 99% of everyone else out there.
You are a creator. So you create things. That's an integral part of your journey.
You can also create any amount of success you want. The first thing you will need to create is exactly what you want from this journey.
Once you specify that vision – what you exactly expect – then things open up and your road rolls out in front of you.
You can actually have anything and everything you want out of life.
Study Helps You Create Your Success
The best way to become successful is to study successes. The fastest way is to study those who studied other successful people. And wrote down what they discovered.
I can recommend three books for you to read about goals and making them happen:
Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill
Magic of Believing, by Claude M.Bristol
If You Can Count to Four, by James Breckenridge Jones.
These three are time-proven classics that keep showing up over and over. They are on the recommended list of almost anyone who's made any success in their life – great or small.
And I mention these here so you can have a starting library of what is a great wealth of material.
Success isn't one-and-done. It is a journey. And you chose the destination.
There is a magic to goal achieving, which is that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once you work out exactly what you want, write it down. Write down your plan to achieve it. And then share that plan with someone to hold yourself accountable. Then you are in the top 1% of everyone else – just because you did those three steps.
Here's what Napoleon Hill said to get started:
"1. Fix in your mind an exact picture of what you desire. It's not sufficient merely to say, for example, "I want plenty of money." Be definite as to the amount.
"2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the thing you desire. There's no such reality as something for nothing.
"3. Establish a definite date by which you intend to possess the desired thing.
"4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire and begin at once, whether you feel entirely ready or not to put this plan into action.
"5. Write out a clear, concise statement of your responses to the preceding four steps.
"6. Read your written statement aloud at least twice daily. Once after arising in the morning and once just before retiring at night. As you read, see and feel and believe yourself already in possession of whatever your goal happens to be.”
So, put down this book, and write out your goals. Write out what you're going to give to get those goals, along with a specific plan of things to do to achieve them.
You have to realize that the most successful people out there all have one thing in common. A relentless focus.
Claude M. Bristol described the success process as this:
"It may be that you want riches or fame or position or knowledge, for each person has their own idea of what success means. But whatever you consider it to be, you can have your objective, provided you are willing to make it the burning desire of your life.
"For any personal success — and this is an important point — it is essential that your desire become an all-obsessing one, your thoughts and aims be coordinated, and your energy be concentrated and applied without let-up."
The only thing I can add is that the more you practice something, the better you get at it. The more you keep your goal in front of you and work your plan, the more relentless you become. Your faith in yourself builds. Your fears diminish. You become unstoppable.
Building Creator-Entrepreneur Habits
You are forming a habit of investing in yourself. By writing down your goals and plan, and referring to these daily. Habits form by repetition - doing the same thing over and over. This is training you as a content entrepreneur.
Reviewing your goals and planning every day, at least twice a day, keeps your goal fresh in mind. And allows you to get regular inspiration to make this vision become an actuality. Then you note this inspired concept down so you can then take action on it later that day or, if at night, the next day.
This is as simple as you producing content several times each week and publishing it on a schedule. This becomes a habit, where you lay out what you're going to get done. Then are always looking for new material to publish on schedule.
These habits should all build remunerative assets. An asset is something that is valuable and either pays you dividends or other direct income. Your content is an investment in building an audience. One which can then pay you for products you produce and offer. It takes regular work to produce that content.
You can also repurpose your content into other content and/or products. So be consistent about building assets and future income with everything you do.
In a nutshell, that is why people write down their goals, make plans, and then carry out these plans. And refer to them with regularity. That is how they then wind up achieving them. Regularity forms habits.
Taking Your Own First Steps
In this book, you'll hear a lot of advice speaking from experience. Just to help you get started and keep going.
There is one thing we can't help you with, though. You're going to have to take the first steps, and then the next ones after that, and so on. Eventually you'll make it – if you keep taking steps every day, if you keep yourself focused on your goal at the end of your journey.
People who set and achieve long-term goals are the ones who win - big.
Some days will be tougher than others. Life, as we know it, holds that promise of opportunities and challenges.
Life also holds true to certain ageless principles. And what these authors mentioned above wrote down so long ago was true then and it is true now.
What you expect out of life is what you get. If you set your expectations high, that is what you get. And I'm sure you've met low-expectations people who somehow muddle through life.
But you already have an advantage over others – you are a creator.
And as you focus on your one advantage, you can use that to create your journey and your success.
Reaching your success as a creator-entrepreneur will take a lot of work. It will take a certain amount of time. And faith in yourself. Persistence builds faith. The more you persist, the more belief you develop in your own abilities.
There is one secret to all this:
The second best time to start is Now.
So pull out what you wrote down as your goals and start executing that plan once you put down this book.
Of course, I'd suggest you finish reading this book first as part of that plan. Because there are more than a few more invaluable nuggets waiting for you.
And an amazing amount of success is also waiting.