Raising $100,000 for charity through a virtual summit on Sales & Marketing

[Martin Boeddeker]

Hi,

thanks for stopping by my thread and following my progress thread.

I just came back to this forum and I'm really glad it still exists and the community seems not to have changed too much over the last years. That's really rare.

What can you expect here?

Basically, I'm writing down my thoughts and hope you can give me some great insights and put things into perspective once in a while. The last time I really had a progress thread were the days at the university when I played online poker professionally. (2009-2012)

At some point, I had to quit because I was simply not good enough anymore. At the beginning, you could win without knowing what you did because nobody else had a clue as well. But as the game became more popular and attracted people who "solved" the game, new software, and in the end regulations, it did not make sense to continue playing.

But the main reason I failed was probably that I never went deep into the theory and only watched, what could learn from the pros at deuces cracked. I still have "The theory of poker" on my desk to remind me that success requires commitment.

Because I want to be part of this community again, I bought Unscripted .

One thing I realized is that I never had a real F*ck This event in my life.

I was always happy and satisfied with my life. And I still am.

My life is great, I have everything except a business that generates cash.

That's not completely true because I have inherited a farm after my father, unfortunately, took his own life because he was depressed and have some side income from that.

At least I was able to raise the rent we got from about $6k/year to $12k/year, which basically covers my living expenses right now.

Besides that I will get married in the next weeks I just proposed last week and my wife earns a steady income that will be enough to live a decent sidewalk life. I'm pretty good at making myself anti-fragile, (maybe only robust.) However, that's not enough to grow a business.

After quitting poker, I tried to start my first business in affiliate marketing, failed and for convenience got a job making $60k/year in a city with low living expenses.

About half a year before my father died I could not stand the crab at the company and moved back home.

During that time I found a developer who developed a tool to stay away from distracting websites. Great business, huge market. But eventually, I had to leave because he never accepted me as a co-founder and I was building my life on a "letter of intent".

That's when I started my own company called "FindFocus", found a great development company in Russia and spent about $35k - $40k to develop a similar software, which is pretty awesome.

(I had real luck with these guys so far). But since then my progress pretty much came to an end.

The software really helps me to stay away from the computer (which was my initial goal), but it's hard to build and grow an online company without having a team and not working myself too much.

Anyway getting married (+ she already has two kids) I realized, that I don't want her to endure the bullshit at work anymore. She likes her job but I hate her complaining about her shitty boss.

You could say she's completely scripted for the sidewalk. Don't think that will change unless I'm really successful.

So it's time to level up again once more and get this thing going.

I vowed to myself, to make this company successful, even though it will take a while. (My time discounting is/was pretty high)

In the past whenever I thought about making money I was looking for some kind of shortcuts. Unfortunately, that does not work.

So my focus will be on just providing value and get my writing habit in place.

If you're interested you can read the blog post that I wrote today here:

Avoid Distractions And Break Bad Online Habits Without Limiting Your Flexibility

It's pretty good for just one morning of work. Especially since I did all the pictures etc. myself.

As I get this going I will streamline the process a bit and create a checklist. Then I will be able to write more SEO relevant content.

However, I want to tackle my habit first before I get lost in details again.

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

This morning at 7:30am the cops came to my house.

They were looking for a "confused woman" because someone reported "strange voices."

I just finished my Hour of Power from Tony Robbins until it dawned on me.

They were not looking for a confused woman.

They were looking for ME!!!

I guess at least I'm shouting loud enough.

Poor woman, who called the police.

I had to tell the cops:

"It was Tony. He made me do this"

#incantationsdoneright

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

Hi guys,

Just wanted to give you some update.

First, I will move to my wife’s house in the summer, something I don’t really want to do but she will burn out otherwise because of her long commute to work and the fact that our property is just way too old and too large for us to keep in order.

Don't really like this but it just makes sense.

I have been reading Nassim Nicolas Taleb’s book skin in the game and the book “throwing rock at the Google bus” by Douglas Rushkoff.

Both book speak about the advantages of staying local in a way.

Especially Mr. Taleb made me realize that ethics (something I really care about) is a fundamentally local thing and that’s impossible to treat everybody equally.

That really ties along with my knowledge about the 80-20 principle.

Besides that, I listened to this podcast about ethics in online marketing by the founder of ThriveThemes: Ethical Marketing | ActiveGrowth Podcast Ep.44

After all the things I’ve tried, that did not work out so far, I decided to make a major change in my approach.

I will pause my work on FindFocus.

I don’t really want to get a job, and leaving my house will free up some cashflow if we are able to rent it out, so I’m fine from a cash-flow perspective (on a really basic level).

I thought about what, I was missing in my life the most and that was working with like minded people in real life.

One quote from Mr. Taleb then moved the needle:

“Every social interaction that is not face-to-face is injurious to your health.”

With FindFocus, I always thought about the US as my main market.

But I have never there and have not really met anyone in person.

Thinking a lot about ethics and following the news, I believe that the world (and especially the US) is so f*cked up that and will very likely not change, despite my efforts.

That means I will not feel fulfilled even if I would be successful with my SEO-strategy that I followed since February.

Because even if FindFocus would be finally successful and even if I get awesome testimonials and feedback, I would not fulfill my need for real-life social interaction with like-minded people.

I would still be missing the main goal and the reason why I created FindFocus (at least for myself).

Unfortunately, my strategic approach with FindFocus forced me to spend most of my time online, connecting with people from the other side of the world.

Because I don’t really like traveling, there is only a slight chance I’ll meet my connections in person.

So instead of focusing on the US, I will now carve out my spot in Germany.

So far FindFocus software has turned out to be quite a hard sell and software development is F*cking expensive.

That lead to my decision, to start with a blank state.

I will focus on becoming an expert first, serving people by selling coaching and courses, something that does not require spending a lot of money upfront.

I will take the theoretical knowledge about funnels, the 80-20 principle and especially the Dream 100 approach and carve out my spot as a “PowerLaw”-Expert in the German Market, validating my approach by applying it.

That means I will also not update this thread for a while.

Maybe I'll open a new one on the main part of the forum.

I don't know yet.

I want to end this by saying thank you to everybody who has contributed to this thread.

Especially I want to thank @Andy Black and @eliquid

Of all the podcast interviews I did, I liked like these two interviews/conversations the most.

 

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[Ravens_Shadow]

Just because your main market is in the US doesn't mean you have to go there or like what they do as a country. Just because I live in the US and it may be shitty to you, doesn't mean that I'm shitty. It also doesn't mean that it isn't a good market.

My biggest markets are Japan and South Korea. I know just about nothing about them, except that they have an extremely harsh working culture and that they give me a lot of money. My tools help *REDUCE* peoples workload in those countries, so it's my duty to meet the demand.

I thought about what, I was missing in my life the most and that was working with like minded people in real life.

One quote from Mr. Taleb then moved the needle:

“Every social interaction that is not face-to-face is injurious to your health.”

I think this quote is just someone being an edgelord. Following this advice would mean that my post is injurious to your health. This means that this entire forum is injurious to your health!

I've met some of my customers in real life, and it's great, but not necessary. They say "Oh man, your tool is so awesome, we use it all the time! Thank you for all of your hard work!" And then.. that's about it. It feels great, but I would have felt just as good if they told me that via email.

If you want to have that social connection, find a co-working space in your area, or go meet up with other entrepreneurs. I highly doubt that if you sold your software in Germany you're going to be meeting a lot of your customers for coffee.

I will focus on becoming an expert first, serving people by selling coaching and courses, something that does not require spending a lot of money upfront.

I will take the theoretical knowledge about funnels, the 80-20 principle and especially the Dream 100 approach and carve out my spot as a “PowerLaw”-Expert in the German Market, validating my approach by applying it.

Is this a pivot to money chasing and short circuiting the process? Are you an expert in funnels, 80-20 and what ever else this stuff is?

I think you're just trying to find some superficial reason to give up on your software company because it's hard. You're in the desert of desertion, obviously, and need to go meet up with other entrepreneurs in your area if you're desiring a social connection.

If the software just isn't valuable, then that's a different story.

 

[MitchM]

I'm currently making a few more sales (3) in the last two days. Before everything was going pretty very slow.

Only things I changed so far were quora and becoming active here (plus putting a bit content on my blog).

Currently, I'm working on a "cornerstone" article about internet addition. It started out as a modification of a blog post from zenhabits.net but I added so much content that I thought why not add some more and make it REALLY valuable and a great piece of content for SEO.

First, it was just an explanation about how I use FindFocus but now I'm adding a part about the current state of research on this topic and one part about how to overcome smartphone addition.

I think it will be really good once it's ready.

Martin, are you considering using this internet addiction article as a lead magnet? I could easily see it being an eBook where you don't really touch too much on your software. What you do is you educate people on internet addiction and how it affects them. What would happen is someone on Facebook (or any other medium) would see a post that asks "How could an internet addiction be affecting your life?" Regardless of what you say... get them to download a free eBook that answers this question by providing their email.

AFTER that - because you used an email opt-in for the eBook download - you hit them with an email about your software. The eBook itself should not feel like it is selling your product. It should only be to help educate people and give them a few useful ways to deal with it that do not primarily concern using your software.

Whoever is reading this eBook should slowly be becoming more aware of the issues that your particular software solves and how deeply it affects them.

Then, once your email hits them it's already sold.

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

Funny side fact: I just got my first follower on SoundCloud.

Daniela

She has this profile text:

Hi!!! Do you w..a.nt s e.. x? Wr..i.te me o..n t.h..e w.ebs.it..e. М..у pr.o..fi.le - SigneGirl90

I guess she really cares about deep work.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

Man this is a great thread, and for somebody who doesn't believe they are together, you are pretty f*cking together man!

I am sorry for your loss, I'm sure no words I can write will make it any better or give you some kind of resolution, just to know I feel you man.

On the side of business, I can't see how you'll fail if the app is good and you keep up with this kind of momentum and pressure. I swear reading threads like this I wonder why all of Germany aren't entrepreneurs!

Have you heard of Stay Focused?

It seems they do the same thing you do but for free (or maybe they have a pro upgrade), how does your app differentiate from that one?

Great question:

They do basically the same thing. StayFocused is great and by far the best free browser extention out there...

Unfortunately there's one very obvious way to get around Stayfocusd, and that's to launch a different web browser because since Stayfocusd only works in Chrome.

Hello Internet Explorer, I don't like you but hey I can visit Facebook...

I've build a native app, that allows you to block websites in Chrome, Safari, Edge and a few other browsers and block other software (like unsupported browsers like Firefox, Opera).

Unlike most other native apps e.g. Selfcontrol, FindFocus does not make changes to your operating system but is still hard to get around.

The idea is that you already know what's best for you but a lot of people are addicted to certain websites (like Facebook, Youtube, maybe even this forum).

FindFocus just makes visiting these sites a bit more difficult e.g. by asking you to type in "Do I really need to stop working on my business to visit Facebook) to give you some more time to reevaluate your decision and make giving in to your craving more difficult than continue working...

It's build, so you can focus on production and consume less just like MJ writes in his books...

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

Okay. I've gathered a small team of people eager to learn "online marketing"...

I've got 5 people/interns on my team now:

• 2 want to focus on writing and SEO learning Wordpress & Co.
• 2 want to focus on building funnels and learning sales
• 1 wants to master email outreach and building relationships (for my podcast)

Currently putting together an individual training curriculum.

Most of them will be working for about 5-10 hours per week (for free).

This will definitely help me to speed things up.

I have all the training they need and go through but I never had the time to implement all this stuff myself.

Now they can use it and get real world experience (and at the same time help me to get FindFocus off the ground...)

 

[Andy Black]

I talk to plenty of people via video conference. I don’t think “diesel and coffee” has to be face-to-face.

I have plenty of US clients and acquaintances, although have no intention of traveling there.

Don’t let that be the reason you don’t target clients in the US, and don’t let the media influence you either. There’s good people everywhere.


Saying that, I’m a fan of building your high ground, and your location is something others can’t compete as well on. It would be a tall task for me to be “The Google Ads Guy” worldwide, but a lot simpler for me to do it for Ireland, and even simpler for my county.


I personally like that you intend providing a service first. I think that gets you more engaged with the people you’re helping, and ideas for platforms/SaaS/apps/etc will naturally come out of those interactions.


Thanks for the feedback about our chat. I can’t remember what I rambled on about! What were your takeaways?

 

[eliquid]

Wanted to let you know I have an Ask Me Anything thread about SaaS here that could be helpful -> GOLD! - Ask Me Anything About SaaS ( I'm building my 7th )

 

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[MTF]

At least I know I will not rely on automatic transcription any more.

This will results in way more mistakes. I had to go through this at least two times to spot most of them. I'm sure there are still plenty of mistakes left, though but I'm still really happy with the result.

I was thinking that this could actually be a solid productized service business. Instead of doing regular transcription, you turn the podcast into a properly written blog post. It would make for much easier reading than the raw transcripts.

Good call on turning it into a proper blog post - I'm pretty sure that a lot of people from your target audience don't have enough focus to listen to the entire podcast. This way, at least they can skim the post quickly and get the gist of it.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

Just published my next podcast episode with a really cool entrepreneur.  

How to Get Thousands of Free Visitors to Your Website by Building Relationships with Influencers?

After going through this interview I actually questioned if what I wrote about the last few days makes sense for me at this moment in time.

Distractions are everywhere:

To quote from the interview wit:

What Creates The Most Stress When You Try To Build A Business From Scratch?
The biggest problem is trying to do too much at once. I am guilty of that myself. You get lost in what your priorities should be. There’s so much to do…

As an entrepreneur you have to do everything. You have to build a product, you have to market it, you have to figure it out what to write, the copy for your homepage, take in feedback from your users, etc…

You Are Putting Out Fires Everywhere Every Day
Then you look back one or two months find out that you’ve been running around.

If you have a small company you don’t have a huge team. You don’t have big board meetings and this stuff.

It’s useful to come back to the purpose of what you are doing and figuring out how you will measure what you do month to month and week to week.

• Is it revenue?
• Is it the number of subscribers?

It’s Useful To Have One Metric
In my case it is monthly revenue.

Then see how your actions impact that number.

In your business is might be something different.

Have a goal that you are going to and all your actions should be aligned to that goal.

Everything you are doing has to be driving that goal.

I think it is important because it is so easy to get lost again.

Keep Coming Back To That Goal
Keep reminding yourself about that goal and don’t’ forget to provide value first before pitching your company.


What’s The #1 Thing That Leads To Procrastination And Overwhelm For Entrepreneurs?
You always want to see what other people are doing.

You see fancy websites, how a company created traction, you see their growth numbers. Maybe someone raised $30 million or $40 million and a startup has 50 employees and next year they have 150 employees.

And you simply started with your 60 customers and next year you’ll have 160.

A Lot Of Entrepreneurs Make The Mistake To Compare Themselves With Other Companies
This kills your self-esteem.

You are looking at these bigger companies in your field and want to be like them.

These people make things happen. They are moving icebergs.

However, sometimes I get in there and think “No way!”

They are not any farther along than you are. You just have a different approach.

A lot of entrepreneurs try to imitate bigger companies and try to do what they do.

They try to copy their service offer, copy their metrics, their growth process and their strategy.

There are so many of these articles out there on how to get your first 1000 customers and how to get your first 100,000 customers. How we hacked a referral program to get tons of users, how we increased our conversion rate by 100%.It might have worked for somebody else.It will probably not work for you the same way.

Just because it worked for somebody else usually does not mean it will work for you.

Maybe referral programs are something you should look into…

Don’t Waste Your Time Looking At Other Companies Too Much

• Don’t implement what somebody else has done.
• Don’t envy it.

 

[eliquid]

I have plenty of US clients and acquaintances, although have no intention of traveling there.

So we will never meet.

Gonna have to update my bucket list now. lol

.

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

Howdy,

I am in the same place as you are and I also have not had a "real f*ck This event in my life." situation. I have been reading from some other threads about motivation vs mindset and the conclusion is that mindset is necessary.

However, without a "real f*ck This event" it is hard to find something to switch my mindset.I have temporary motivations but have not found something to kick my mindset into gear and am still figuring that out for myself.

I would say you are definitely on the right path with your mindset of just providing value. It all starts with that.

Funny thing ... earlier today I was on reddit and found your post of the same content on r/Entrepreneur. Good work. I found your writing engaging and well thought out.

Good luck on growing the business and I look forward to hearing updates.

P.S. If you want to get some keywords checked on Ahrefs (SEO Tool ). DM and I should be able to help you out.

One thing about the FTE event. Having a strong "away from" motivation is important but I don't agree with MJ's formula, where he says it's binary. Otherwise, I would be screwed

However, without the FTE event, I believe it's important to spend a lot of time creating your vision. What kind of life do you want to live?

A good place to start is Michael Hyatt's book living forward.

You can do the exercises here: The book is nice to read but not necessary.

Important is to DO the exercises which are freely available here: Free Resources | Living Forward

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

Just published my next blog post.

You can read it here if you want: Avoid Distractions And Break Bad Online Habits Without Limiting Your Flexibility

The goal is right now is getting used to the publishing process itself.

I have so many tools (mostly from appsumo) to help with that, that I have to figure out which ones I want to use.

Once I have figured that out, I will create a checklist to streamline the process.

Plus here a screenshot of my software. I really like it. It's so helpful to stay on track.

 

[garyfritz]

At some point, I had to quit [poker] because I was simply not good enough anymore. At the beginning, you could win without knowing what you did because nobody else had a clue as well. But as the game became more popular and attracted people who "solved" the game, new software, and in the end regulations, it did not make sense to continue playing.

Sounds **exactly** like my experience with financial trading. When I started in 1998, I was able to make ridiculous profits even though I didn't have a clue what I was doing. By 2001 I was managing $10M in client money. Then 9/11 happened and totally upended the market psychology, and all the techniques I developed stopped working -- and they never worked again. I had to quit trading for personal reasons (but eventually she divorced me anyway ) and when I started again 8 years later, I found it was basically impossible to find any profitable and reliable strategies. Other traders saw the same thing.

Lesson: never assume you've cracked a problem forever.

One thing I realized is that I never had a real f*ck This event in my life.
I was always happy and satisfied with my life. And I still am.

Same here. Other than the aforementioned divorce and subsequent lack of a life partner, my life is pretty awesome. I'm making a good income doing something I enjoy, with a lot of free time. I don't have much Control but other than that it's a good setup. Makes it mighty tough to motivate myself to sweat & bleed to create a business that doesn't really interest me. Especially given how many people put in the sweat & blood and never manage to build anything successful.

Not complaining, mind you. Just observing.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

I'm really proud because of my lasted podcast:

I spend two days of turning it into a blog post but I think it was time well spend.

How To Overcome Porn Addiction

I also got some pretty good advice on Facebook from Paul Clifford in his Facebook Group:

Hey Martin

Great product and site...I love it and will buy it myself.

In terms of positioning - instead of overcome 'internet addiction' etc..
push positive messages instead - growth/success/wealth etc.

There is a probably a ton of successful people and articles that put focus at the top of their list for success.

So for continual blog content - the podcast is perfect, followed by a featured successful celebrity in business - perhaps once per month.

This product is used by internet entrepreneurs who love to read and listen to other entrepreneurs.

Then for traffic and reach..start with promoting these featured articles as engagement ads on Facebook. Engagement ads will be low cost and generate a ton of traffic.
You'll get page likes in the process.

Your targetting is easy.. anything entrepreneurial.

At this stage you're trying to build and audience using key content pieces to get engagement.

As your page audience grows - then keep it populated by sharing your podcast blog posts.

I noticed you haven't got any lead capture going. I would set that up asap - as it a missed opportunity. You can either use KudaniLeads or I'm loving Convertbox right now. (10% optin rate on the blog homepage) Its not for sale yet - but they're running a one-time price pilot program here http://link.designrr.io/convertbox

So focus on the audience building for entrepreneurs and grow that list!

I think I slowly get the process of publishing my podcast right. I still make improvements but seeing the latest one is something I'm really proud of.

That's the kind of result I want to present with deep work. In the long-term I will be able to outsource a large chunk this work to somebody else, but it's a good experience to have done this myself first.

At least I know I will not rely on automatic transcription any more.

This will results in way more mistakes. I had to go through this at least two times to spot most of them. I'm sure there are still plenty of mistakes left, though but I'm still really happy with the result.

Besides that the next think I will focus on is list-building and a small followup sequence.

I like to keep things simple for now and not worry about everything at once.

I'll continue doing the interviews and will use Brett McKay from the art of manliness as my first case study.

But first I'll need to publish another "website blocker"-SEO post.

Later on I plan to write more case studies about other gurus that promote "Focus". Probably Brendon Burchard and Sam Ovens... so I can target their fans on Facebook...

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

I was thinking that this could actually be a solid productized service business. Instead of doing regular transcription, you turn the podcast into a properly written blog post. It would make for much easier reading than the raw transcripts.

Good call on turning it into a proper blog post - I'm pretty sure that a lot of people from your target audience don't have enough focus to listen to the entire podcast. This way, at least they can skim the post quickly and get the gist of it.

Great idea. It's probably not only my audience, though

I think with some proper trained employees this could business idea would work in the higher end spectrum.

It's definitely a lot of work though... but if you find a few talented students or people from lower cost countries with good English skills...

I wonder how much people would pay for this?

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

I'm constantly making progress.

I'm on track to publish one awesome podcast/blog post per week. Currently working on streamlining the process and creating SOP's for this.

Besides that, I "lost" 2 days last weekend due to drinking to much on an Oktoberfest. There I decided to quit alcohol until I hit at least $10,000 in revenue.

As a German I really like drinking beer.


Anyway, I ended up getting Russell Brunson’s 30day challenge and really really liked it.


Here is his marketing copy:

A few months ago, legendary marketer and friend Russell Brunson sent a brief email to over 100 of his ‘Two Comma Club’ award winners…


Inside that email was a single question...


Here’s what it read:

“You suddenly lose EVERYTHING in your business (your money, your big name, your list, your affiliates and JV partners, all of it)...You have bills piled high, and people harassing you for money over the phone.​

All you have is a roof over your head, a phone line, an internet connection, and a ClickFunnels account for only ONE MONTH.

Other than your vast marketing experience, you’re back to being a newbie...What EXACTLY would you do, from Day 1 to Day 30, to save yourself?”

He started reading through the crazy detailed plans, mapping out what they’d do day-by-day…

They sent him incredible, creative blueprints for how to get their business back up and rolling again, and generating income and leads in just ONE MONTH.
Every Two Comma Club expert had a different answer, and used a different strategy…(which is really, really cool!)
Each of his 30 speakers are going to answer that question for you IN DETAIL during the summit.
They will lay out their step-by-step detailed ACTION PLAN (Day 1 through Day 30) for how they’d get their business up and rolling…

...and each plan is DESIGNED to start out from ZERO.
Meaning, even if you have:
NO LIST…
NO AUTHORITY…
NO INCOME…
NO AFFILIATES or PARTNERS…
Even if you’re starting out truly from “Square One”...this summit is pre-engineered for YOU to succeed starting from SCRATCH!


Anyway, scanning through the interviews, I noticed how “unfocused” I still am compared to these guys.

But especially after participating in KungFuSteve's training, it’s awesome to see their believe systems.


Currently I’m improving one thing at a time trusting the system.

Jason Brown had a really good podcast on productivity about this topic lately.

Producitivity Tips From SERPWoo


In the past I always had problems with the marketing language of online marketing. I just does not fit my brand.

The one change I will make after reading these 30day plans is that I will change my customer avatar to affiliate marketers.

If I can help them to get more productive, they will promote FindFocus for me…

That’s how I can talk use this language to them, while still keeping my “main brand” and the podcast free of marketing stuff that just feels wrong.


One thing I learned on my last podcast is that you need to understand the nature of the underlying problem - the root cause of the problem.

You need to understand yourself - your likes and dislikes - what works for you and what does not work for you.

That means you need to understand your personality, your existing setup, your current physical environment as well as your emotional and social environment. If you try to develop better habits because if you try to address something, your solution might help you but not always.

If you do not access the root cause the problem will show up again. Your solution might work for a while, but before you know it you will be back to square one again. Sometimes it's about working smarter and finding the right time to work.


If you apply a solution even if you know the root cause and adopted it to your personality but not to your context it’s going to be a problem.


Most people think it’s a problem with motivation. However, if your solution is not adopted to your personality, this will cause a problem.


For example, this could mean that your solution works but requires you to do something you do not enjoy. The less you enjoy your work the more difficult it will become.


If your physical environment does not really allow to implement your solution, you will fail.

I mean this episode…

How To Create Laser-Sharp Focus?


Now it’s about trusting the process of SEO with my podcast, building relationships.


Besides that, I will continue to add value to as many people as I can, without hurting my values.

Sometimes I know, there are faster ways but these ways just do not fit my personality and values…

 

[MJ DeMarco]

One thing about the FTE event. Having a strong "away from" motivation is important but I don't agree with MJ's formula, where he says it's binary. Otherwise, I would be screwed

However, without the FTE event, I believe it's important to spend a lot of time creating your vision. What kind of life do you want to live?

A strong meaning and purpose can supplant an official FTE... so it's not really binary.

There I decided to quit alcohol until I hit at least $10,000 in revenue.

Let us know when it happens, will make the thread GOLD!

Thanks for sharing your journey.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

A strong meaning and purpose can supplant an official FTE... so it's not really binary.



Let us know when it happens, will make the thread GOLD!

Thanks for sharing your journey.

Even more motivation now.

Currently trying to work out a deal with Spencer Mecham.

He's the #1 affiliate for ClickFunnels and just launched his own training program teaching other affiliates to make money online.

And guess what, the first thing he mentions in his 30day plan is to get rid of distractions.

I offered him to provide a free licence + a free coaching call to all of his customers who just bought his $697 affiliate marketing course. (more than 100 at this point)...

If he accepts he can teach me how to set up an attractive affiliate program, that he and his peers would be eager to promote.

What I love about Clickfunnels is that they are priced so high that it's really attractive for affiliates to promote it (while at the same time for someone who just starts not not as an affiliate, I would honestly recommend Kartra (or if they want to start a blog, ThriveThemes+ActiveCampaign+Gumroad).

I'm a huge fan of Kartra (but I am biased here because I got coached by Andy and Mike a two years ago).

Having said said, I believe all the software in my specific niche is heavily under-priced.

For example: If you have trouble with wasting time online my solution helps you to save just one hour per day at a rate of $10 that would mean you'll save $300/month...

Long story short: I would love to help people see this value so they will be able to make a living (or at least decent money) promoting it.

That's means I need to set up a really attractive affiliate program for it.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

Time for my next update:

Putting the team together and making it work is quite a challenge because I have been lazy documenting my business processes and have not worked out all of them.

But I'm still making progress...

I realized that other people some in the same position I am so I posted this into 2 Facebook groups:

Since at this moment in time I cannot afford paid staff I decided to look for free help.

The best thing:

I put this team together within ONE week, with a total workload of about 20 hours without any prior experience in hiring...

This included the whole application process, all the job interviews, which got a 75% success rate with the applicants that made it this far.

(At this moment I will probably need to fire only one of them because of bad judgement from my side)

If anybody in this group is in a similar position just starting out this process and needs help with execution, I will record the entire process.

Let me know if you are interested?

FYI: This is not part of my main focus right now but I thought it might be useful for somebody else here.
​

I got some got feedback and decided to record the whole process and turn in into an information product...

(Basically one of my interns will create a complete funnel around it, because that's what she wanted to do)...

Long-Term my goal is to carve out my niche in the online marketing world with FindFocus and one Flagship Product based around the 80/20-Power-Law.

This internship course will basically be a bonus for my flag-ship product...

Here you can access it (links are to unlisted Youtube-Videos)

Hire Motivated Interns Who Want To Work For FREE In Your Business Without Wasting Time

Just going through the process of recording this thing was a great learning experience in itself...

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

Progress is slow. Having a wife and kids at home is a recipe for distractions. No Software helps against that

But I spend the last week building a new website after getting feedback from some customers.

It's probably 100x better than the last.

I spend a lot of time writing compelling copy and designed everything myself.

I still want to create some better videos but that is actually quite hard for me. (So far I've created only one)

Stop Wasting Time Online & Get Things Done

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

The getting in shape part did not really work out. I stuck to my diet in January and completely fell off the wagon in February.

So I'm still at 80kg.

After a short failed attempt at PPC and google AdWords, I decided to focus 100% on SEO.

That's what I like most. That's what I can do best.

I know that theoretically this is not the optimal route and this will take longer.

This is building an asset.

Fortunately, I found a good ghostwriter who can write really decent 1500 articles for $35. He will probably charge more in the future because his rate is more like $60/1500 words but in the long term I hope this will give me a good ROI.

As eliquid said: SEO is about consistency. Having someone to do the "hard work" for me really helps to push things forward.

This guy really motivated me. He just focused on writing great content for over a year, without any backlinking activities (as far as I can tell).

So I will try to do the same for now.

The 1st week went pretty well:

Why Willpower Does Not Work

How To Focus On Reading - 5 Genius Ways To Outsmart Boring Books

Train Your Brain To Focus – The Ultimate Guide For Heavy Internet Users

Stop Wasting Time Online & Get Things Done

 

[Andy Black]

So we will never meet.

Gonna have to update my bucket list now. lol

.

Ha... I’ll take that as a big compliment.

Maybe I’ll get there one day. I just don’t see it happening for the foreseeable future.

Let’s arrange that Skype chat sometime though? Doesn’t have to be recorded... would be nice to finally have a chat and just shoot the breeze.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who posted here. Your feedback really made me rethink my decision.

It's mainly my excuses and lack of clarity the made me jump from idea to idea and not following through with anything.

Recently I've been listing to a lot of Russel Brunson's stuff and doing some of the exercises from @Kung Fu Steve's program.

So I'm getting rid of a lot of the believes and worries that were holding me back and finally narrowing my focus and getting clear of whom I want to help, and how I want to approach this.

There was an initiative within the Kartra Users Group to level up their affiliate activities.

So I took initiative and took leadership on this.

I will be hosting a virtual summit for people new to online marketing currrently looking which software to use (Clickfunnels, Wordpress, etc.)

Sort what I did with my podcast when I was interviewing other fastlaners & entrepreneurs.

I learned so much from these conversations and I believe others will do, too.

 

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[Martin Boeddeker]

I've just seen the rebill from Viperion Corporation in my Paypal account. I did not know I was still subscribed to the INSIDERS but after getting all the support from this forum I just want to give back to MJ for his amazing work.

There was not update for about one year.

It's been an interesting ride.

There were some things that went really great with the summit and some that did not go well.

Here is a list of all the people I interviewed last year.




There were soo many things I've learned.

A lot of things went wrong just before the summit started, e.g. my Facebook account got shut down, so I could not run ads, almost none of my speaker promoted the summit to his email list and I got no help from Pencils of Promise.

I would have considered the summit a complete failure if I would not have been for Mike Filsaime promoting it.

I made about $4000 in sales, which roughly covered my expenses.

However, with the information, I got I learned more about SEO and affiliate marketing and I'm now on my way to become the #1 affiliate for Mike Filsaime's software GrooveFunnels. (affiliate link)

The new software has the potential to become more popular than Clickfunnels.

After interviewing so many people how made a fortune by promoting their products, I decided to shut down my software 100% and turn my blog into an affiliate marketing blog.

I noticed that is this niche is scammy as hell and there are very very affiliates who create trustworthy reviews.

In my opinion, I failed with FindFocus because I was trying to compete with my competitors in SEO but all of them were super strong in this regard.

In affiliate marketing, it feels like I have almost ZERO competition for in a niche that sells at a much higher price point than my own software and I don't have to take care about customer support and development.

 

[d7laungani]

Howdy,

I am in the same place as you are and I also have not had a "real f*ck This event in my life." situation. I have been reading from some other threads about motivation vs mindset and the conclusion is that mindset is necessary.

However, without a "real f*ck This event" it is hard to find something to switch my mindset.I have temporary motivations but have not found something to kick my mindset into gear and am still figuring that out for myself.

I would say you are definitely on the right path with your mindset of just providing value. It all starts with that.

Funny thing ... earlier today I was on reddit and found your post of the same content on r/Entrepreneur. Good work. I found your writing engaging and well thought out.

Good luck on growing the business and I look forward to hearing updates.

P.S. If you want to get some keywords checked on Ahrefs (SEO Tool ). DM and I should be able to help you out.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

I'm currently making a few more sales (3) in the last two days. Before everything was going pretty very slow.

Only things I changed so far were quora and becoming active here (plus putting a bit content on my blog).

Currently, I'm working on a "cornerstone" article about internet addition. It started out as a modification of a blog post from zenhabits.net but I added so much content that I thought why not add some more and make it REALLY valuable and a great piece of content for SEO.

First, it was just an explanation about how I use FindFocus but now I'm adding a part about the current state of research on this topic and one part about how to overcome smartphone addition.

I think it will be really good once it's ready.

 

[Martin Boeddeker]

Martin, are you considering using this internet addiction article as a lead magnet? I could easily see it being an eBook where you don't really touch too much on your software. What you do is you educate people on internet addiction and how it affects them. What would happen is someone on Facebook (or any other medium) would see a post that asks "How could an internet addiction be affecting your life?" Regardless of what you say... get them to download a free eBook that answers this question by providing their email.

AFTER that - because you used an email opt-in for the eBook download - you hit them with an email about your software. The eBook itself should not feel like it is selling your product. It should only be to help educate people and give them a few useful ways to deal with it that do not primarily concern using your software.

Whoever is reading this eBook should slowly be becoming more aware of the issues that your particular software solves and how deeply it affects them.

Then, once your email hits them it's already sold.

I think that's a great idea. However, in the end this is something I have to test.

Sometimes a pdf-work-sheets has a higher conversion rate than a 10-page ebook. It all depends. People are having very short attention spans these days. Especially if they come from Facebook