Wow, there is a lot of controversy over faking it until you make it.  I didn’t know that so many people were confused about this.  And the reason is, because they don’t know if they should or shouldn’t.  We’ve come so far in science and medicine to know that the placebo effect works every time.  In fact, Dr. Oz says that they don’t even tell patients that they’re likely to die -- because the patient usually cooperates!

What does this mean, and what does it have to do with faking in?

Simple.  When you present something to your subconscience mind -- (not your brain) -- it doesn’t care, doesn’t know whether it is real or fake.  All it knows is that you are feeding it with this “thought” and it will process that.

Remember that whatever you think about, you bring about.  No mystery there, either.

So watch this video I’ve made for you on the beach -- I’m telling you, the pelicans were having lunch!  But what I want you to know is that it is entirely OK to fake it -- to act as if -- you’re there -- where you want to be.  Tell your mind where you want to be and let it figure out how to get your there.

Blessings!
Dave in Naples

I don’t like the way that sounds – fake it until you make it – because it sounds like you’re trying to be dishonest about yourself.  But are you?  Can you be?

The answer to the second question is, Certainly!  It’s called acting!  And we ALL do it in some shape or form.  In everything we do when we are in the presence of another person, and when we feel we are communicating in some way with God or anything else, we put on a facade that allows us to project how we want the person or, funny in a way, God, to see us.

Many things make up the way we will change that “person” we become.  For example, if we’re trying to entice a neighbor to look at an opportunity we are in, we will treat them with respect and go overboard to be nice.  We will act different when they respond to our offer.

We strive to be cool, for the most part, but many times we just act acceptable only because we have no standard to live by, or to act by.

So when someone tells you to Fake It Till You Make It – you really need to know – Fake What?  What am I supposed to be living up to?  And this standard can be seen in all of the better corporations and families who take the time to teach their kids a mission statement to live by.  Two companies come to mind, both Apple Computers and Starbucks Coffee.  When you walk into an Apple store, you’re met by employees who stick to a high standard.  Same at Starbucks.  Their training is constant.

Are they like that at home?

No.  But the person they put on at work fits the workplace.  And that’s what you can do when you’re working your opportunity, too.  But where the Fake It part comes in is where you are told to act as if you’ve achieved a certain level in your business or in life.

I’ve heard this called “self-concept” or “ideal-self.”  And tomorrow I’m going to tell you how you can use this philosophy to your advantage.  So don’t miss that.  We’ll do a little dream work and an exercise in getting clarity.  And the timing in your life couldn’t be better, right?

See you then.

Every school day I bike with my eight year old down the street to her school.  It bugs me that the parent that drops off their kid at the front of the school will then barrel down the side street at 35 to 40 MPH in a School Zone.  I guess I have a few quirks, but people doing dangerous things (not to them; to the kids) is not high on my list.

OK, so you’re thinking how can I profit from something like that?

Here’s what you do.  I’ve been talking to you about home based businesses for a good while.  What you want to do is take that irritating behavior and ask yourself what would the possible equivalent be in your own business?

Then, find the way to correct them.

For me, it was people that simply rush right through the sign-up process to the street.  They don’t feel they need much training, and they’re dangerous as business builders.  Like there’s a 10 step program and they read about three steps and stop.  Were they not interested, or was it that the training wasn’t cutting edge.

Well, whatever it is, I knew I needed to find a way that people would go from step one all the way through step 10 without bailing.  And the best way to do this is to offer some sort of incentive.  It’s not difficult to create a training website where you have do things in modules.  www.Drupal.com comes to mind.  You can probably get someone for under $100 to do this at www.elance.com.

So see what is irritating in your world and apply it to your business.

Continued success.

If you were a visitor to this planet, you’d probably wonder why everyone was under such stress.  Looking around, it’s not apparent that we’re in a recession – not at this writing.  And I know you can choose not to participate in that, but I want to tell you what I think about the current situation with the U.S. economy.

Most Americans have lived beyond their means for the past two decades.  I don’t claim to understand everything about it, but so much credit has been extended that now the strength of many companies is withering.  Everything around us is so tightly woven into our earnings that complete companies can fail if too many of us can’t make our monthly payments.

And it really struck me the other day, while listening to Tom Alkazin on home based businesses, that it really is a tiny amount that brings down the house of cards.  He said something like the extra $200 – $300 a month that a small business would give you, is just what is needed to stop bankruptcy.

The way that works is remember, if you have a bill for $250 each month, and can not pay it for a time – it snowballs.  It doesn’t go away – so a little money from another stream would help.

Think of that on a nationwide scale and you have what is happening to thousands of companies.  And thousands upon thousands are being sent home from work without a job.  As bleak as that is, there is a silver lining in it for you.

The first wave you will see will be normal stores begin to offer better customer service.  Competition will become fierce as companies place prices as low as they can and still remain in business.  With the huge cuts, companies will have lower overhead.  Still some will fail.  And I believe those companies that play around with creative pricing will fail as well – because deep discounters will put them away.  We all want a good deal.

So look for pricing wars, and customer service bonuses galore, right now, in the bigger retailers.  For example, at cosmetic counters see special treatment, and businesses that sell similar products – take advantage of the pricing wars.  Unfortunately, the only way you can do that is by subscribing to your local newspaper, and by watching the local newscast – both which are appaling to me.

The next wave will bring service closer to home.  The days of doctors making house calls will return.  Specialists in all sorts of areas will be knocking at your door offering special deals.  You’ll have to be keen to know which is best.  Try creating a neighborhood group, or even a small group of neighbors that come over to play cards and discuss these “deals.”

Home based businesses will spring up everywhere.  The problem is knowing which one may be right for you.  Here is my view.

Look for a company with a strong history.  There are many new companys coming online.  Stay away from them.  There are enough old companies with workable businesses that you can get involved with.  My view here is that the track record for brand new home based business companies is atrocious.  You’re going to have to work to make money.  Why not work for a company that is going to be around for a long time.  Many people have been burned badly by companies that folded overnight – after having put years of hard work into them.

I’ve started a few home based businesses, and there are a few things that need to be right in order for you to succeed.  One, is the company, as I mentioned.  Another is the product.  I am amazed at how many companies out there are set up for one time sales.  Find a company that is producing something that is consumed on a daily basis.

And finally, find a company that has a low to zero start up cost, and doesn’t require you to buy stock.  With the Internet, it is just too easy to order online and drop ship.  This is efficient.

So watch for the markets to adjust, or correct; be aware of the many advantages of huge sales companies will have.  And then start your own stream of income.

Just in case you’re not familiar with me, let me tell you a little about myself.

For more years than I care to count, I’ve been figuring out marketing strategies for an incredibly diverse set of businesses.  There are dozens of examples and I’ve had a lot more victories than I’ve had defeats.

From this vast experience, I’ve learned and developed both fundamental concepts and specific techniques that you can transfer from one business to another to market just about any product or service.  And what I’d love to do is have some of that experience rub off on you, through these posts.

So first of all, whenever you talk about effective marketing, you have to, in the same breath, bring up goal setting.  Almost everyone I know in marketing or small business foolishly shoot in the dark.  Shooting and hitting a target is hard enough with enough light.  Why make it more difficult?  Write it down – the first step in marketing is to clarify what your outcome is.  I’ve seen a ton of businesses fail because their marketing plans were just too shallow.  For example, if your goal is to attain a certain sales volume and income, you’re building your business on sand instead of stone.

I mean, think about it.  Hitting high sales numbers isn’t that hard if that’s all you want to do.  It gets challenging when you take that objective and try to marry it with other objectives, like a profit margin, a standard of quality for your products, and long-term customer service.

There’s a story of a fellow who built a 500 million dollar company from the ground up in thirty-six months.  He once told someone that “Making the million was the easiest thing I ever did.  Believing it could happen to me was the hard part that took thirty-seven years!”

OK, so we know that making a lot of money is more dependent on your belief than anything else, but something you don’t know about this fellow is that even though he built a half a billion dollar empire, he lost it all even quicker and now, some 16 years later, he’s working his way through legal problems.

And by now you’re probably getting the concept of the the lesson.  Too few interlocking objectives brought the empire down.

Construct an interlocking structure of goals, objectives, and values that will guide your marketing efforts.