E-Biz Booster Blog

I start the new week with giving you excellent reading tips. Yes, I feel a bit lazy today, and I do admit it. However, the content I give you links for is worth your clicks.

In my Get More Done posts I have written about the importance of handling email the right way rather than getting overwhelmed by email. Tim Ferris (↑), author of the 4-hour-workweek goes one step further. He even outsources the handling of all of his email (about 1,000 emails per day) and only spend 10 minutes with it a day. Sounds cool? He even shows you his procedure that works for him and he actually wants you to steal it, modify it, use it for yourself. If you have trouble with handling the size of your inbox, you should learn from Tim.

Even, if you are not ready — but being not ready is one of the oldest excuses for procrastination by the way — you can apply some of the rules to automatic filters, autoresponders, etc.

Here is Tim's post:
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Welcome to the December 11, 2007 edition #30 of the Carnival Of Small Business Issues.

My name is John and I am your host for this “Canarian Edition”. As this Carnival grows it is getting harder to select articles from the growing number of submissions.

Thanks to everyone who contributed.

Instead of limiting the number of promoted articles to some arbitrary number, like 20, I have decided to give you more, and introduced a new category “Online Marketing Special” just for this edition.

Question of the day: How Would You Promote Innovation? If you are a member of a management team or a business owner, how would you answer this question? Charan “CA” Atreya, the organizer of this Carnival, runs an open answer survey on his blog. If you have something to say, please, do so on his Blog.

If you are interested in hosting this Carnival or submitting a blog post, you'll find more information at the bottom of the page.

Today we have the following categories: Marketing, Online Marketing Special, Human Resource, Operations, Personal Development, Finance, Business Tips
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You probably already have seen, that I promote Rich Schefren's latest milestone type of report — The Attention Age Doctrine Part 2 — very prominently on this Blog. I even have shot a brief video.

The core message of the report for many businesses is

“You are no longer in control of your branding, positioning and marketing.”

Wouldn't you believe someone, who had made enough money to retire at age 25, but has so much drive that he just moves on and since then helped his coaching clients to make some hundred millions of dollars additional income.

“Don't ask any further questions?
Just download the free report and read it.”
(It won't be available forever!)

So what are the lessons that I have learned from this?

I had 2.7 times more visitors on my Blog than usually on Sundays. I am already curious for todays figures. All because I decided last minute, that I will participate in Rich's 66 seconds promotion video contest. So why did I get more traffic yesterday? Because I took action to participate in an event (the contest) that has a lot of attention. It is that simple.

Do you remember my post about one key factor for success: The Speed of Implementation. If not, go back and read it. It is one of my top posts.

Even though the video contest had a sharp deadline only 36 hours after it had been announced, my situation was worse. I did not “pay attention” until 2 hours before the submission deadline. That's when I decided to do it.

All of a sudden I had hundreds of ideas, but no time to put them on screen. Furthermore I never made a promo video like this. But I wanted to participate, I wanted to see, how it effects my Blog. So I focused on the essentials and kept everything to the bare minimum.

• Writing a script, the text.
• Filming myself speaking
• Trying different setups, quickly.

I just didn't like any of the intermediate results. But I kept going. The clock was ticking. Finally I realized, I have to make the video some kind of funny to cope with all those no-time, no-budget, no-preparation, no-outsourcing type of issues in this Saturday night mini project. Originally I wanted to get into the informational or compelling category, but … no music, no third party material to be edited into the video, …

I kept rolling, registered for those sites, and submitted the video 6 minutes before the contest submission deadline.

• What do you think? Is the video funny or just plain stupid?
  About Rich Schefren's Doctrine (John's Video is no longer available)
  Please, leave a comment here on the Blog.
  
  
• Do you have anything else to say about the doctrine, Rich, or myself?
  Say it, in the comments.

Do you see what was driving me?

It was not perfectionism. And excuses like there is not enough time or how could I win and compete against everybody else, … could not stop me. Today I have seen videos from my competitors in this contest that blew me away. I am also relieved, because — at least in my opinion — my video is not the worst one.

I was driven by the determination to enter this competition. Nothing stopped me. I used what I had available, which was not much at this time as far as my Internet video skills and tools are concerned, but I am proud that I did it.

I have proven to myself that I am an action taker and that I am capable of getting to speed quickly. That is what counts. It is much more important for me than this particular contest. Of course, if I won, it would boost my business tenfold or more, But I am confident that I'll be able to boost my business anyway.

Yours
John W. Furst

I warn you at the beginning. This will be a short article. Why? Because everybody of us has work to do. No matter in what position you are. So I will quickly give one of my popular “generic - this helps everyone in every situation” rules. It's not limited to business. All you need is the drive for “getting results”.

Here's the tip:

“Implement your ideas as quickly as you can!”

Are you

• A business owner (home based, small or large, …)
• A manager (first level, middle or top management)
• A freelancer
• Or simply an employee

Even if you are a student or if you are unemployed, you should get out something from this lesson.

Ask yourself, how many times in your life you had a “great idea” or a “great opportunity”, but you didn't really follow through. Instead you switched yourself into “research mode”. Or in “waiting mode” and never switched to “taking action”. Later you simply dropped the idea. Another, “what would have been, if this had worked …” story is born. Think a little:

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Steve Pavlina (*) made an interesting point on his blog today: “Reaction vs. Response (↑)”.

Steve writes about some teachings in martial arts, where the difference between reacting and responding is a subject of training. To put it short in my own words:

• Reaction is dictated and controlled by the other party, whereas
• Response is under your control.

This is an analogy for business life as well. Now, my opening question becomes a different, a deeper meaning.
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