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10 steps you should take to become successful in life

image credits: freedigitalphotos.net

Everyone wants to be successful. Its the reason stories like how J.K Rowling went from counting food stamps to becoming a billionaire become viral. Its the reason Oprah Winfrey attained goddess-status because many struggling women wanted to be just like her (a broke lady from a broken home one instant and in America’s top ten richest the next instant).

What is Success?

Success is doing what you love and attaining heights you dream of. Success, for me, is being an entrepreneur with a difference. Success for Micheal Jordan was being the best basketball player of all time. Success for Walt Disney is being the best entertainment company in the world.

Success does not have to be all about money. It is about you and what you want in life. If your ambition is to eradicate illiteracy, then your success is defined by the number of countries you helped build robust education systems that work. If your daily motivation is the reduction of mortality rate, then your success would be the day it is observed that 99.9% of your patients survived. If your life goal is to be on Forbes list, then of course, success for you would mean how much wealth you have acquired.

But there is a problem:

Many times, we want to be successful right now!

There is nothing wrong with a little ambition. Wanting to be successful is not a bad thing. Its expecting to be successful without sweating for it that is wrong. None of the successful people I know had a magic lamp.

Real Life stories of people that built success out of nothing

Before I go any further, I want to tell you the true stories of three people, whom life knocked so hard, and yet they shocked everyone with their brilliant success.

J.K Rowling:

image credits: DailyMail.co.uk

She is best known for her Harry Potter series, that sold over 450 million copies with the last four books setting records as the fastest selling books of all time on both sides of the Atlantic and generating billions of dollars from book sales and the film merchandise.

But J.K Rowling had a rough start.

In 1990, her mother died from multiple sclerosis. Grief led to her first marriage, that lasted less than 3 years. This was the start of a dark period in her life and in her words, she felt like a failure. Christmas of 1993 saw her back in Edinburgh, with her young daughter and living on welfare.

She started writing the Harry Potter first book in 1990 and submitted it to publishing houses in 1997. It was rejected by 12 publishers and nearly thrown out by Bloomsbury (the publisher that eventually paid her a paltry $4000 as royalty for the first book). Her saving grace was the daughter of the editor of Bloomsbury who insisted on reading the rest of the book.

An American publishing house, saw the book and immediately bought rights to publish it in America. The rest, as they say, is history.

Neil Patel:

image credits: Mashable.com

30 year-old Neil has achieved a whole lot for his age. He was recognised as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and one of the top 100 entrepeneurs under age 35 by the United Nation. He has made it to Forbes top 10 online marketers list and Entrepreneur Magazine believes he created one of the 100 most brilliant companies in the world.

What company did he create that got him all this recognition?

Neil is the co-founder of Crazy Egg, Kissmetrics and Hello Bar; with these companies he has increased the revenue-generation capacity of blue-chip companies like Amazon, NBC, Viacom and HP to mention but a few. To view an infographic that shows all the details of Neil’s life, click here

But he was not always the top-shot internet marketer.

Neil reveals that he started out with crappy jobs: like being a janitor, a salesman for an expensive vacuum-cleaner that nobody wanted, and starting a job board that sucked a lot of money and never made a cent. Even the early days of Crazy Egg was punctuated with crazy losses. After Crazy Egg, he started a number of software companies that failed.

But he did not give up.

Neil knew what he wanted and continued to strive for it. As at 2012, Quicksprout earned $1,000,000 in revenue. Big-shot companies like Amazon, HP have hired his services in millions of dollars and currently Neil is working on transforming an already successful Kissmetrics into a $100 million a year revenue business. Read more of his story here and here

Pat Flynn:

He dubbed himself ‘the crash dummy of the internet’. He has tried almost every single legitimate tactic or strategy there is to make money online. Just last month, his blog brought home a hefty $123,853.51

He might not be a millionaire but he makes a pretty decent income from his internet marketing ventures.

But it was not always this rosy.

Before he started making money online, Pat received a sack notice! During the economic crisis in 2008, he was fired from his 9-5 job but notified on-time by his boss. He had to move out of his house into his parent’s house and start commuting by train to save money spent on gas for his car. Out of desperation, he walked into internet marketing and has never looked back since.

Their not-so-secret ingredients…

When you read through these stories you will notice certain things (what I call the ingredients of success)

1. They wanted success so bad…

When you read Neil Patel’s life story you will discover he had one driving force: he wanted to be rich. He wanted to break free of the shackles of middle-class.

J.K Rowling wanted her books to find a home in every young child’s library. She always dreamed of being a writer.

To be successful, you must first want it bad enough.

How can you do this?

Ask yourself this question: What do I really want in life? What do I want so bad in life?

Do not freak out: it mustn’t just be money. Some people want to visit every nation of this world so bad. Some people want to leave a legacy for their kids. Some want to create freedom and equality for all.

Whatever it is, you must want it bad enough.

2…They were willing to work for it

J.K Rowling worked on her novel for more than five years. At a point, she was making notes on scraps of paper or tissue or anything close-by whenever inspiration struck. What many people don’t know is that J.K Rowling started writing at a tender age. When next you watch a Harry Potter movie, know this: It took years of preparation, training and a lot of sweat and blood (her mother’s death) to make that story the stellar piece it is.

When Pat Flynn started trying to figure out how to monetize his blog, he was driven by one compelling force: he had to find a source of income so he could take care of his wife (then fiancee) and their children. Pat had no experience in marketing but he learned it. Pat knew nothing about Affiliate marketing but he learned it.

He was willing to work to make his dreams of fending for his family and spending quality time with them come true.

How can you do this?

After answering the first question, ask yourself this second question: What do I need to do to achieve this? Be brutally honest with yourself. Get a pen and paper and put down everything required to achieve your dream. From skill-set, connections to finances, list every single thing.

3. They believed in themselves

We all have doubts but our doubts must never overshadow our belief in ourselves.

When Pat Flynn found out that a large number of people visited his site, he was scared.

According to him, he had these thoughts:

“What if my notes weren’t good enough? What if I’m forgetting something?

I knew the content was good though, and exactly what I needed to pass, so I internally began to become confident in what I had created and was determined to monetize this site somehow.”

Do you ever feel this way. I know I do sometimes. Everyone does. The trick is to put in your best and when the nagging voice of self-doubt pops into your head, silence it with the results of your genuine efforts.

How can you do this?

After answering the second question, ask yourself: “what are my fears?” Your fear could be that you are not educated enough. It could be that you do not have the right skill-set. It could be even a physical deformity like you do not have good legs so you are not mobile. Whenever I have doubts about myself, I tell myself, “If Nick Vujicic can become a world-renowned motivational speaker, write 4 inspirational books and accomplish a whole lot more, then I have no excuse to keep doubting myself”

Nick Vujicic is one of the men I admire and you can find out more about him and other people who never allowed their weaknesses stop them in this inspiring article by Ikechi Awazie

4. They had goals

When Pat Flynn was warned of his imminent sack by his boss, He knew immediately that he had to figure out how to make money online.

According to him:

My body was still going into the office a few times a week, but my mind was all about online business and learning all about how it worked and what I could possibly do to begin to earn an income online.

In my mind, I was already laid off.

I had a few months left on payroll, plus a small severance package and some emergency savings if I needed to use it – so I figured I had maybe 6-8 months to make this online business thing work – whether it would be something I did with my LEED blog or something else. If not, then I would send out resumes like mad or go back to school to get a Masters and go from there.

As far as I was concerned, I had no other options but to make it work.

When J.K Rowling was receiving food stamps to take care of herself and her daughter, she poured herself into her book. She just knew that she had to make it as a writer or the future really looked bleak.

How can you do this?

Now ask yourself, “How long will it take me to achieve my dream?” and “What do I need to start doing now to get there within that time frame?”

5. They explored their creativity (and broke the rules!)

Pat Flynn created a new dimension of affiliate marketing with his website smartpassiveincome.com.

This is how he did it.

First he would create a blog post for a product he was an affiliate of. Then he would create a video showing exactly how to use this product, revealing free-of charge what some people taught at a price. He did this for BlueHost, Samuri products and many others.

The result?

His affiliate links recorded crazy conversions, and shot his earnings through the roof. Don’t believe me? Click on this link to see for yourself. Before Pat Flynn started this form of affiliate marketing, it was little-known. Pat Flynn was one of the internet marketers that made it a well-known strategy.

J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter book was rejected by 12 publishers in a row. Why? Because of literary rules like “Hook the reader on the first page“, “The story must start with the main character”, “If its for kids, then words like ‘wizard’, ‘magic’, ‘dragons’ etc will land it in the slush pile”, “The fantasy genre is overflogged for kids. Kids want another type of hero”

J.K Rowling did not allow all those rules determine what she will write. And she was still optimistic even after receiving all those rejection letters. And today, she has over 450 million books sold to show that certain rules are meant to be broken.

Due to their creativity, they were ahead of their times and created trends that everyone else scrambled to follow.

How can you do this?

Do not be afraid to think out of the box. When an idea occurs to you, do your idea validation. If the idea still holds water, do not listen to the nay-sayers. Just do it.

6. They had skills

Neil Patel started marketing before he was out of college. Pat Flynn started blogging while he had his 9-5 job and J.K Rowling started writing stories before she was a teenager.

They had skills.

And these skills paved the way for their success. Nobody becomes successful without having a skill.

How can you do this?

Look at your dreams again. What is the one skill you have that you can start using right now to achieve them.The skill does not have to be a direct skill.

For instance, you might be a really good writer but you want to develop an app that helps women get their finances right. To develop this app, you need to know technical stuff like a programming language.

But you do not.

Don’t let this dissuade you. You can hire a programmer to do your app for you, while you make money for to pay the programmer by freelancing your writing skills on job sites like Elance or even on your own website. 21 year-old Brandon did something similar and you can read all about it in the article: Crazy Dog Apps Used Fiverr to Build App Store Empire

The important thing here is you have to have a skill that will make it easy to achieve your goal. So ask yourself again: What is the one skill I have that I can start using right now to achieve my goals?

7. They surrounded themselves with the right people

J.K Rowling went to stay near her sister who believed in her. Neil Patel co-founded most of his companies with his sister’s husband. Pat Flynn says: When I told my wife [of the imminent sack], she took it well. She has always believed in me and I owe her everything for that.

Another connection that shot Pat Flynn’s internet marketing career to the top was his affiliation with the Mastermind Meeting with the Internet Business Mastery Academy.

According to him: This mastermind group started to meet regularly, and for a while included Dan Andrews, which many of you may know from the Lifestyle Business Podcast – but it was that first meeting that changed everything.

Because it was in this meeting that Sterling told him to write and sell an ebook on his first website, since it was getting thousands of visitors. It was through this group that Pat Flynn got this idea that generated $7,126.91 alone.

How can you do this?

If you are confused or overwhelmed about how to achieve your dreams or beclouded with doubts, get a mentor/coach. Also join forums of like-minded individuals who are hell-bent on succeeding (like Pat did). I have written extensively on the power of connections and relationships. One of the articles I highly recommend you read is The Secret Sauce of Success.

8. They found one idea and stuck to it

J.K Rowling knew she wanted to be a writer and stuck to it. Pat Flynn decided he wanted to be an internet marketer and stuck to it. Neil Patel decided to take the internet marketing scene by storm and has never looked back.

Regularly you see people chasing the latest fad and abandoning it when it does not give them the results they desire immediately. You see entrepreneurs abandoning their young businesses out of frustration because they are not yet earning money from it. It took Pat Flynn more then 15 months to earn a substantial amount of money from his first website GreenExamAcademy.com

It took J.K Rowling 7 years of dedication to her novel before she got her first payoff.

It took Neil Patel years of dedication to learning internet marketing, even failing at his job board and losing money initially with Crazy Egg before he started racking in millions.

Every good thing takes time to grow. A plant will take its time to poke it head out of the soil, even if you water it endlessly for 24 hours. It will never break through the soil in that 24 hours.

How can you do this?

Focus on achieving your dreams. Just make sure you pick something you are really passionate about. Then work towards making it a reality and never ditch it for any fad that promises quick gains.

9. They were not afraid to fail…

The fear of failure has crippled many people making them prefer a mediocre life than to achieve their dreams.

Don’t let this be you.

Neil Patel states clearly that many of his software companies were failures. But this did not stop him from founding Kissmetrics. Instead of succumbing to his failure, he learnt from them.

According to him:

Eventually, we learned that Crazy Egg succeeded while our other software companies didn’t because of two reasons: not only does it solve a unique problem that enough businesses are experiencing, but it does so in a very simple way.

With our new found knowledge, we decided to create another analytics company that would solve a much larger problem than what Crazy Egg solved.

How can you do this?

Do not see failure as an indication of your weakness. No. If a project failed, you are not the problem. The failure of the project is not a reflection of your capabilities as a person. Instead understand that failure is a way to learn something new you did not know before. Neil used the knowledge gained from the failure of his software companies to build Kissmetrics. When something fails ask yourself, “What next? How can I fix this?”

10 …And when they failed, they got right back up and fought again

Despite the fact that J.K Rowling felt like a failure when she found herself as a single mother with no achievement whatsoever, she continued writing. Pat Flynn’s eminent sack pushed him to work harder on his website. Neil Patel’s failure did not stop his craving for success. Instead he used his failures as a tool to create a powerful company.

How can you do this?

Everyone is scared of failure. But I want you to know this: Should any of your plans fail, simply get right back up. Do not give up.

Every single successful person I know has tasted failure, rejection, losses and pain. And that’s what made them stronger and moulded them into who they are.

If you learn just two things today:

1. You must want success so bad that you are willing to do everything legally possible and ethically right to get it. By this I mean, that you should not allow your ambition steal the precious moments you spend with your family or make other tasks like a trip to the gym impossible. Instead I mean that you should cut your time spent catching up on social media, TV bingeing and instead spend this time working on your success. I mean you should be ready to sacrifice an hour or two of sleep to build yourself up for success.

2. You need to start being with like-minded people: You are a product of the people you spend your time with. If you really want to be successful, you need to start building connections, relationships and friendships with successful people.

Over to you. In the comments below, tell me the one thing you do everyday to achieve your dreams of success. Are you having challenges being successful? Tell me about and I will get back to you with tips that could help. A problem shared is half-solved.

How to make so much money from your business – guaranteed!

Let’s sit back for a second and consider some of the reasons you open up a business:

To change the world: Maybe you have an idea that you know can make the world a better place.
To pursue your passions: Life is sweet when you can earn from doing what you already love.
To afford any luxury you want: Let’s face it; you got bills to pay and you want to own a car and you hope to afford vacations every year. Plus you want to provide the best life possible for your family.
You want to be your own boss: Enough said.

But here is the truth: Running a business is not a piece of cake. It can be challenging and if not managed properly, can lead to lack of sales and frustration as you will then find it difficult to achieve any of the reasons you opened your business.

How to Ensure You make money from your Business:

Someone I know told me that Sales solves every problem in a business.

And I agree with him. Because when a business is making money, no matter what you might be facing in that business, it won’t frustrate you. If you have customers that complain a lot, you will swallow it; if you have employees that slip every now and then, you will overlook it; if you have a project that needs financial assistance, you can secure a loan from a bank; if you have a kid that needs special academic attention, you will pay for it.

A thriving business with consistent money flow and profits is every entrepreneur’s dream.

But how can you build a business that makes so much money, bank managers will be following you bumper to bumper just to convince you to put it all in their bank? I drew up a list of ways to increase the revenue-earning power in your business. They are:

1. Watch your business expenditure:

The mistakes a lot of entrepreneurs make is that they do not watch how they spend money made from their business. If you want your business to be successful and profitable, you have to watch your expenditure; there is no two ways about this.

Ways you can watch your expenditure:

Decide what your salary is: A lot of entrepreneurs do not give themselves a fixed salary. This is really bad. They take money based on the profits they make or the issues that might crop up at home. I discourage that. Fix yourself on a salary and every single extra cent that comes invest it back into the business. Instead give yourself a milestone. Tell yourself that if you are able to achieve consistent volume of sales of a certain amount, then you will increase your salary. This way yo will be motivated to work more so that you can achieve your target and hence increase your salary.
Only spend on what is necessary: Entrepreneurs always face an inclination to splurge. Maybe you are a new entrepreneur and you want a shortcut. So you have been told if you spend more on this and that, then boom! your business will be the next CocaCola. Or maybe you have been in business for a while but sales are at an all-time low and you are hoping you can buy back your customers by spending money here and there. STOP! If it is not necessary do not spend on it. Keep your expenditure tight. This way you will have more money and increase the money flow capability of your business.

2. Increase your client base:

More Clients or customers equal to more sales. That’s not rocket science, that is a fact! One of the best ways to invest in your business is to invest in strategies that increase your client base. Follow the following tips to increase your client base:

Do not lose your old customers: Research has shown that it is way more easier to get an old customer to buy another product from you than it is to turn a complete stranger into a new customer. So do everything within your power to keep your old customers. Establish a rewards program, so that when someone buys something from you, they are entitled to a discount coupon they can use on their next purchase.
Give out Giftcards on your site. Sites like Eve & Tribe and Fashpa are doing this well. Giftcards are great because they mean more sales for you. A giftcard is something you purchase when you are not sure what gift to give. Ensure there is a giftcard service on your site, so that your old customers can give it out to their friends and family.
Make your old customers refer you to their friends. The most trusted and effective advertorial is when a friend says, “I have used it before and I loved it. You should get it too.” Encourage your old customers to recommend to their friends by rewarding them for every referral that turns into a sale. Software you can use to do this include Referral Candy and Gleam Rewards.
Do giveaways: Nothing attracts new business like a giveaway. But a lot of entrepreneurs get this wrong by giving away something that will attract the wrong audience. Example: giving away an iPhone 6 will attract every tom, dick and harry to your site. And most of them (99.9%) will never buy a thing from you. Instead give away something related to your business. Do you sell custom shirts? give away a custom shirt. Do you make cakes? Giveaway a sumptuous, mouth-watering cake. Do you design apps? Giveaway an app design and implementation package.
Liaise with established influencers in your target market, so they can advertise you to their audience. This is one of the most effective methods of attracting new customers and clients to your business. Click here to learn more.
Advertise on Social Media Platforms your target audience hangs out: To grow you need new customers. Another way of getting new customers is through advertising. Get the best conversions on your advertising budget by advertising only on social media platforms your target audience already hangs out in.
Advertise on Google: Every single day, millions of people use Google Search. Need new customers? Chances are that you can get them through Google Adwords.

3. Offer more value than your competitors:

Its one thing to advertise to new customers, its another thing to convince them to stay. And this is determined by your Unique Selling Point (USP).

To create a USP that converts into more sales, you need to ask yourself: How can I offer more value than my competitors?

To answer that question, first you need to know what your competitors are offering. Then you need to know what extra value you can add to that.

For example if you are a fashion retailer, offering nationwide delivery is no longer an added value. Everyone is doing it. But you can go a step further by offering clients a LookBook for any outfit they buy. In this lookbook, they will see 6 different ways to wear that outfit they buy.

An advantage of this lookbook is that it will contain more pieces for your store. So customers who get this lookbook will be enticed to buy even more outfits just so they can complete at least one or two of the 6 different looks.

4. Network/partner with the right influencers:

I have written about influencers in this article and this article. Have you ever noticed that whenever a blockbuster movie is about to debut, every single prominent actor/actress in the movie is interviewed by a well-known media personality.

Why?

There are many reasons for this but one of the reasons is to subtly market the movie to the media presenter’s audience. Because when someone like Oprah says, “Wow, I will like to watch this movie” you can bet that more than 10,000 Americans will want to watch the movie because of what she said.

Use the same strategy in your business.

Find an influencer who is well-respected and loved. Get them to recommend your product and watch the sales pour in.

5. Solve a pressing problem:

I wrote about this in the article: The fastest way to acquire success. Imagine if someone was to discover the cure to HIV. And imagine if his solution is simple like pop a drug in your mouth and in 24 hours you are HIV negative.

He will be a billionaire overnight right?

Exactly!

You should apply the same mentality in your business. Try to turn your business into a problem-solver. Solve a pressing problem and your increase your profits almost overnight.

6. Market the blazes out of that solution:

I don’t care how good your product is, but if nobody knows about it, it is not going to sell a piece. I learnt this the hard way and wrote about it here: 10 reasons why failure could be your best friend.

Thee ability of a business to make good money depends on the marketing strategy they have. Market your product to the right people, through the right mediums and at the right time and you will make a killing.

7. Get testimonials:

Nothing chases away good business like a bad testimonial.

Picture this: You are browsing on Amazon and you want to buy a facial repair moisturizer. But you are very careful because you have used two fake creams before and the damage they caused to your face has resulted in tens of thousands in dermatologist fees. You don’t want to end up in the hospital again.

Then you see a cream you really like. And it has got 20 rave reviews and just one negative review. You decide to check that negative review out and you see this:

“If there is something lower than 1 star, I would have given it. The texture of this cream is watery and nothing like the original. To make matters worse, after using this cream for only 5 days I noticed a fungal infection on my face. Do NOT BUY THIS fake product.”

Now be honest with me: Will you still buy this cream? Even though it has 20 excellent, 5-star reviews?

Chances are that you won’t! In fact you will run away from the retailer’s amazon page as fast as you can.

That is exactly what one or more negative reviews can do to your business. It can send customers running.

The opposite is true of a positive review. When visitors click on your ads on Facebook or google and they come to your website, see your products and see only excellent reviews and testimonials, they are immediately convinced to buy. Because if people have used your product and liked it, that means your product is genuine and trustworthy.

To encourage more website visitors to turn into new customers, ask your old customers for a testimonial. Entice them with gifts if necessary (this is because many people will not honour your request for a testimonial but will be more easily swayed if they will be rewarded for dropping a testimonial)

8. Get a website:

So Important. The internet is the home of billions of people. If you really want to make serious money, then you need to start thinking of how to sell your business to as many people as possible.

One of such ways is through a website.

I always advise people to open a website before they open a brick and mortar office. This way you keep expenditure low, then start making money before you start paying for office space. A similar strategy was used by Sweet Kiwi and it greatly contributed to their success.

9. Create tiered prices:

Though this not applicable to all business, it is greatly profitable for coaching and training programs as well as businesses like Makeup artistry, catering, health and fitness to mention a few. Tiered pricing works with this principle: the more value I offer, the higher the price I will charge. Look at the image below to see an example of tiered pricing.

Be creative. Start with a base service/product. Then figure out what extra values you can add to increase the price. The extra values can be video tutorials, more hours spent making up the bride and her family, 3 other cakes of different flavours.

So there you have it; More ways you can turn your business into a cash cow. Do you have an addition to make? let’s know in the comments

Sharing is loving; Share with friends and family so they too can make more money from their business.

How to Build your connections and grow your business

I have been tinkering around Facebook and twitter, trying to find new ways to grow my brand. And here is what I found out.

Facebook Likes are almost useless

Tweeter followers are almost baseless.

No am not lying or trying to make things up. If you have a website and want to use internet marketing to increase you client base, then stop spending money on ONLY facebook ads or twitter ads.

Why?

Because, unless you are a gossip site, you will be discouraged by the results. To better illustrate what I am saying let me give you an example:

You are at a great party, sipping your favorite drink at the bar section. Suddenly a complete stranger walks up to you and says, “Hey hi. My name is Josh. And I have something I am so sure you will like.” And just like that, this complete stranger brings out something from his pocket, sticks it in your face and starts telling you all the benefits of that “something from his pocket”.

How will you feel?

Like you are suffocating? Like you want a breath of fresh air? Like you want to be someplace else but within a mile of “Josh”?

Why? Because you don’t know him, you don’t care about him and you certainly don’t care about whatever he is thrusting in your face.

That’s exactly how people feel when they see your ads on Facebook. When they are browsing through their newsfeed and suddenly see an ad with an unknown business name, that is you intruding into their party time. When that ad goes on about some product they have no clue about, that is you thrusting ‘something from your pocket’ in their face.

And to take a breath of fresh air, what do most of these people do? They ignore your ad and look someplace else – (Wow! Look at that cute little kitten. OMG, is Kim Kadashian naked again?)

But Facebook and Twitter are not completely useless, if you know how to use them. From my tinkering, I found out that Facebook and Twitter (and most social media platforms) are great places to build and solidify your connections and use these connections to grow your business.

Now let’s go back to the party scene. You are silently sipping your favorite drink when you hear someone call your name. You turn around and to your pleasant surprise you find best friend and colleague at the office, right behind you. You squeal with joy and the two of you embrace. Then the two of you do a little chatty talk. Then you notice there is someone beside her. You ask who he is.

“Oh, am so sorry,” she says. “This is my friend Josh. We met at that expo I told you about. Guess what? He has this amazing product I think you need. Josh, why don’t you show her.”

Then Josh brings out the product from his pocket and starts talking about it. For every two sentences Josh says, your friend adds a supporting statement. Then your friend ends it by saying, “I have tried it and I loved it. You should try it too.”

Tell me the truth, wouldn’t you be greatly tempted to buy the product even though you have never met Josh before?

And be honest, you probably never felt like bolting away from Josh’s presence. You probably enjoyed all that chitchat too.

See the difference?

When a stranger is introduced to you by someone you already know, that stranger turns into an acquaintance instantly and a firm foundation for a better promising relationship is built.

And that is how Social Media should be used if you want to get the best results. You should market your products by using an achiever’s influence

Who is an Achiever?

An Achiever is a person who has accomplished a lot in their industry, is well-respected and has a huge following. Want examples? Steve Jobs was an achiever with a massive following and he was greatly respected for being innovative and visionary. You can’t make three sentences about top-selling mobile products without mentioning his name or his company Apple. Oprah Winfrey is an achiever. Her show touched and changed millions of lives, her grass-to-grace story inspired and liberated many women. Mo Abudu is an achiever, with a huge following and she has inspired many to forget their limitations and pursue their dreams. Tony Elumelu is an achiever and has helped many entrepreneur fund their startups.

Imagine when these achievers with tens of thousands of followers mention you to their audience? Let me tell you what will happen because I have experienced a similar occurrence:

1. You will get massive visits to your blog/website.

2. You will see a spike in the subscription to your newsletter and autoresponder lists.

3. You will feel lesser resistance when you talk about your product to your new audience. Its almost as if they want to hear about your products.

4. You will experience a spike in sales of your products after the achiever recommends you.

5. You will observe that you spent less money and achieved better results than Ads would give you.

So you see the advantage of an achiever introducing you to their pack of followers. You spend less money and you get more sales. WIN WIN!

But there is a little problem.

How do you get achievers and influencers to introduce you to their friends and followers? There is one way to do it: you befriend them first.

How to befriend an Achiever.

I must give you fair warning though: Befriending an achiever is no walk in the park. This is because a lot of people are clamouring for their attention. What I advise my clients to do is to start with the small fishes. Achievers fall into three groups: There are the small fishes, then there are the medium-sized fishes and there are the big fishes.

The Small Fishes:

Small Fishes are those achievers that have set themselves apart in their locality, community, industry. Within these small establishments, they have proven to be different and are respected. They also have more recognition and a large number of followers compared to their peers.

Examples of Small Fishes are

people who have fan pages with 10,000 to 99,999 followers.
people who are moderators of active groups with more than 1000 members.
Recently published authors who have shown their expertise in a field and whose books have been downloaded more than 1000 times and have at least 50 amazon reviews to prove this.

These people are easier to meet and befriend.

How do you befriend them?

Follow them on twitter, like their page on Facebook
Find out their website and visit it.
Subscribe to their newsletter.
Each and everytime they release a post, read the post/article and drop a relevant comment (very important)
Be active on their social media platforms, contributing, liking and retweeting moderately.
Do this for at least 5 months before you ask to guestpost for them.
After guestposting, humbly ask for a mention of one of your products to their audience.

Now you will notice I said that its very important to drop a relevant comment on their website. Bloggers love comments on their posts/articles.

But not just any comment like, “Hey hi. Nice article. Can’t wait for the next one.”

That is not a relevant comment, its a spam comment. It shows that you didn’t even bother to read the article at all.

If you really want to get in a blogger’s good books then, read his/her article and drop a comment that shows you read and learnt something from the article. Do this regularly. That is why I said, you should subscribe to their newsletter. This way you know immediately they release an article and you can rush over to their site, read the article and drop a comment.

Notice that I also said you should be active on their social media platforms. But don’t do this in a spooky way. Do not comment or like all updates on their social media. That will look desperate. Instead comment or like or share most of the updates so that they notice you but at the same time you don’t appear to be spammy or desperate.

The Medium-Sized Fishes

Medium-sized fishes are upcoming stars and celebrities. They are the people that are just beginning to catch the attention of top news channels like CNN or even the attention of established big fishes like Oprah Winfrey (and yes I am ‘unapologetically’ a huge fan of Oprah 🙂 )

Medium-sized fishes have accomplished the following:

Built a huge following of a 100,000 or more followers on facebook, twitter, or any other social media site.
Are proud authors of many books/albums/movies that are just beginning to sell like hot cakes.
Are well-established in their industries and widely known as experts.
Can charge crazy fees for the simplest services and yet people rush to book them.
Have spoken in one or more events or seminars.

These upcoming stars are not easily approachable. Your best bet? To be recommended to them by a small fish that they respect. My advise? Start building a relationship with a well-known and respected small fish.

How to befriend a Medium-Fish

Follow them on all their social media platforms and subscribe to their newsletter.
Comment appropriately on all their content (whether on social media or on their blog)
Attend a networking event you know the medium-fish will be attending. Make sure you know a small fish that is a mutual acquaintance and hence can introduce you to this upcoming superstar.
When introduced, try to find a pain point they might have and offer to help free of charge. Do not forget to mention that you have been actively following and participating on their social media and website.
After you have offered help and your help received high praise, seize that opportunity to ask for an introduction of your product to their huge following.

The Big Fishes:

These guys are celebrities. Everywhere they go people are scrambling to have a selfie with them or have their autograph. Contacting such people is near impossible because all communication is routed through their PAs. Your best bet? Get recommended to them.

If you impressed a medium fish well enough, you will definitely be recommended to these celebrities once the chance presents itself.

So there is my advice. If you want your business to succeed do not rely on Ads alone. Use connections with Achievers to improve your sales. To be able to do this, befriend an achiever. To ensure you don’t get frustrated while trying to catch Oprah Winfrey’s attention, start with the small fishes.

Maximize the exposure from the small fishes and the medium ones will take note. keep excelling while pitching the medium fishes with a carefully thought-out strategy and soon, those medium fishes will not only be your friends, but will be recommending you to established celebrities.

To drive my point home, do you know any popular musician whose first interview was with CNN? Nope. They all started out begging local stations to cover them. But with time, as they rose to fame, CNN now has to call their publicist to book a time that will be favourable to the popular musician.

That’s how it is with business. When you are starting out, you might find yourself begging people to listen to you and care about your products. But with the right strategy you could rise to the popular musician’s status and be like Microsoft who has newspapers rushing to cover any news about them.

Did you love this article? Then share so that it could help another person find out how they too can improve their business sales.

10 reasons why failure could be your best friend

Ok, I bet your eyes are shooting daggers at me. And I know your mind is wondering “What does she mean by failure could be your best friend? Is she even thinking or has she run out of blog topics?”

Please hear me out before you crucify me. Yes I was thinking straight and no, I have not run out of blog topics. But today I wanted to write a post about something everyone experiences.

Its called failure.

Whether in a big or tiny way, we have all experienced failure at some point in our lives. And I understand how depressing failure can be, especially when a lot is expected of you. And that is what this post is all about: to let you know that failure is not the end but the beginning of beautiful things.

How?

Let me reveal a secret to you: Simply Quintessential was not my first attempt at blogging. In fact it is my fourth attempt. I started blogging as early as 2011. Within the space of 3 years I started three different blogs and watched them crumble.

But I didn’t give up.

Instead with each failure I learnt lessons that have ensured the success of Simply Quintessential. And I want to share them today, to encourage you and motivate you. Also if you are considering blogging, then you need to read this so that you don’t repeat the rookie mistakes I made.

1. Failure taught me to know my onions

This is number 1 mistake many entrepreneurs (and bloggers) make: They don’t know what they are getting into. When I first started blogging, it was the “IN” thing. The internet was awash with the success story of Linda Ikeji’s Blog. Everyone wanted a piece of the internet-riches pie, myself inclusive.

But we didn’t know the true story of Linda Ikeji’s success. We just thought that once you open a blog, write a few articles, then slap on ads in every available space, then the dough will start rolling in. I knew nothing about how to start a blog, I knew nothing about content writing, I knew nothing about how to set it up, I knew nothing about Google ads, I knew nothing about how to attract visitors. In a nutshell I knew nothing!

And I was in for a rude shock.

For starters, setting up the blog was easy to learn. I used Blogger. But there the fun ended. Because I did not have any audience in mind, I didn’t know exactly what to write. I wrote some random articles that I thought people would like and share with their friends. But guess what? Few people came to my site and I made nada. Nothing. With time, people even stopped coming, no matter what I wrote.

What I got wrong: I knew nothing about what I was delving into. I didn’t do my research, I didn’t understand what it would take to succeed as a blogger.

And that’s what many entrepreneurs get wrong. If you want to start a business you must know what is involved. Example if you want to start a fitness club, you must know what type of fitness solution you are providing, the amount of technical expertise and soft knowledge you must know before you can proudly call yourself a fitness instructor, what type of people your fitness solution will appeal to, how to get those people to know of your business, how to get them to trust and then patronize you.

Bottom line: You must know the business you want to start and how to monetize it. If you don’t know this yet, don’t start the business yet. Do your research and learning first and foremost.

2. Failure taught me to start a business I am passionate about.

Second mistake I made, was trying to start a blog in areas I was not passionate about. I love writing, I love building and developing businesses. But I am not a gossip junkie. As you just guessed, one of my first blogs was meant to be a forerunner in gossip gist, fashion and inspiration. It was a jumbled mess and it failed because I was not passionate about gossip.

When you want to start a business, don’t just focus on the money. Yes, we all start business to make money but that should not be the driving force. Why? because Money is not ever a good enough motivation. If money is the sole motivation, it means that whenever another shiny object that promises to give instant wealth comes along, you will abandon the business you started.

THIS IS BAD!

Because before you know it you will have a litter of abandoned projects and not one successful one. But passion is the quality that will ensure you hold onto your business, because you already love doing it and just can’t imagine life without doing it. So if you love fashion, start a fashion-related business or a fashion blog. If you love photography, go for a business in photography. Never venture into a business you don’t like solely for the profits you will make. Because when the going gets tough you will abandon that business and in the end make nothing from it.

3. Failure taught me that Business must always be defined

Try starting a business that is a fast-food joint, cement retail spot and toilet cleaning supplies manufacturer all rolled into one.

Big mistake right?

But many entrepreneur make this mistake in different ways. When you are trying to start a big business at one time, so that you can get thousands of customers instantly you are making this mistake. The best entrepreneurs started with one product, then expanded from there. Bill Gates started his company with developing an Operating System. Now Microsoft is into games, office tools, mobile, internet etc. But it all started with an Operating System.

You should do the same. Instead of starting an eatery that does African, intercontinental and baked yummies all at once, focus on one then expand from there. This will help reduce your startup costs and help you penetrate the market faster. Then as you grow stronger, you can branch out into other types of food service.

4. Failure taught me that “If you ain’t proud to show it off, don’t even bother”

This is so important, that I cannot overemphasize it enough. Why? because your first customers will be from the “cliq” of your family and friends. So if you are not proud enough to show your trade to them, what makes you think you will convince a random guy to patronize your business?

5. Failure Taught me to focus on Helping people and not focus on only making money.

When Facebook started out, there was nothing like ads on the entire site. For more than 1 year, the brains behind the social media giant worked on helping people with Facebook. How? Facebook was developed as a tool to stay in touch with family and friends regardless of location, time or distance.

They started out with a zeal to help people. Monetization of the site came latter, when they had amassed an active audience of millions of people.

When Facebook had grown a strong user base of millions of users, it introduced targeted advertising, this time to help small and big businesses. Before Facebook it was difficult to select the specific age group, sex, occupation of people you want to see your ads. But Facebook came and changed all that. The result?

The company reported a $7.82 Billion revenue for 2013.

Their focus paid off. They started out by helping ordinary people to stay connected, then they diversified by helping businesses advertise to specific groups of people with even a budget as small as $1. And then the money flowed in.

You should adapt the same model for your business or blog. Forget about making quick money and focus on building your audience, your network. To throw more light on it, consider reading this article

6. Failure taught me that marketing is the lifeblood of any business.

I must confess: I am a shy, delicate tulip.

On a good day, I love nothing better than to cozy-up to my loved one or to bury my nose in a book with a chocolate chip within reach.

I always balked at the thought of marketing. In my mind, marketing was for those sleazy salesmen. I was well-educated, hence I didn’t need to descend to that level of badgering people with my articles. A good market sells itself, so my readers will find me.

I was so WRONG that looking back right now, its almost painful to believe I once thought like that.

The truth is that there are a million wonderful blogs on cyberspace, there are thousands of people doing the same business you are doing. So readers and customers are spoiled for choice.

Developing wonderful products and articles is not enough.

You have to tell people about your business or blog. You have to show them why they should patronize your business. You have to hook them with delectable and delightful offers and freebies. In other words, you have to market your business but smartly. Today’s marketing is no more about pestering people to come and buy from you. In today’s marketing, you instead entice people by showing them how you can solve their problems. In today’s marketing you focus on offering value so that sales will naturally flow in without you coming off as a self-centered sleazy salesman.

7. Failure taught me that Your network will greatly determine your success

The one thing that can make or break your business is your network. By network I mean your customers, friends, advisers, employees, investors, partners.

For a business to grow you need an audience or customers or clients. Without them, your business will definitely wither away.

To learn more and to improve yourself and your business, you need to surround yourself with mentors, friends and associates who are achievers and have accomplished a lot in their fields.

To ensure your business is not run to the ground, you need worthy employees: People that are skilled, know their duties, perform these duties exceptionally and continuously contribute to the growth of your business. Make a mistake in picking the right network and your business will suffer greatly.

8. Failure taught me that Good things come to those who persevere and keep trying

The bitter truth of life is that nothing ever works out exactly how you plan. More so in business, where there are just too many variables that you can never predict what will happen in 2 months. For instance, you can’t tell when the value of dollar will fall or rise against your local currency. You can’t predict when the government will enact a policy that will adversely affect the way you currently do business and force you to develop another way.

But good things only come to those who persevere. Be persistent and smart with your business. Don’t abandon ship at the first sign of a turbulence. You never know what diamonds the sea will toss on your ship if you hold on.

9. Failure taught me that success comes to those that Keep improving

10 years ago, the only way to get in front of customers was to advertise through billboards, radio stations and magazines/newspapers. Fast-forward to today and those expensive traditional mediums of advertising is patronized only by established big corporations like Coca Cola, Total, MTN, who have deep budgets.

Today, small business owners use content marketing and social networks to advertise at extremely cheap rates.

The same applies to your business. What was trendy 10 years ago might be obsolete today. For instance in hairdo, we now have different types of human hair, and different styles for fixing these human hair from invisible parting to lace wig method. These methods were not even known 10 years ago. Imagine if a hairdresser refuses to improve/update her skills? Will she still get new customers or any customers at all? I seriously doubt that.

So to stay relevant and to ensure your business is profitable, update your knowledge

10. Failure taught me that Presentation is everything

The way you are dressed is the way you are addressed.

Simple truth. That’s why when people go for an interview, they wear their best formal outfits. So that they will be taken seriously.

The same applies for business.

My first two blogs were a mess. When I started Simply Quintessential I knew that one of the things I must work on was my presentation. What do I mean by presentation? Branding. From your business’s name to the colours you use to the tagline of your business. I wanted my website visitors to immediately know that I take my blog seriously, that is why I spent some good thing branding it.

So there you have it. I really hope these reasons help you avoid a lot of the pitfalls I faced. If you enjoyed this article, and know someone else it can help, go ahead and share it.

Have you experienced any failure when starting your business? Is there something you did but later learnt it was a mistake? Let’s know in the comments! So we can help others avoid our own mistakes.

The True price of success – Is it what you think it is?

Everything on earth has a price tag.

Doubt me? Ever heard of ladies who had to exchange their bodies for a job position? Ever heard of men who had to kill to acquire wealth and drag up their families from poverty. Ever heard of children who had to drop out of school to hawk?

Or even about the man who lost his wife and child because he could not afford a Caesarean Section. This is a true life story that happened just last year and swept the entire nation in a storm of shock and rage as it was discovered that the doctor won’t touch his wife until the complete money for the Caesarean Section was deposited.

So everything on earth has a price. Even success.

But there is a wrong price and a right price. The wrong price is sacrificing your self esteem for the momentary benefit of acquiring a job. Or selling your conscience for luxury. Success like everything else is developed on a foundation. When the foundation is rotten, it can’t last long. When the foundation is built with the wrong materials – like sleeping with ones’ boss, thuggery, theft and other misdemeanors – its only a matter of time before everything comes crashing down.

But if built with the right price and on the right foundation, your success will not just be solid but it will inspire and motivate many generations after you.

So what is the right price?

The right and only price for success is knowing what you want and going after it. Sounds simple right? Wrong. A huge number of people don’t even know what they want. They know they want to be millionaires but do they have a clear path of how to get to that millions. And that’s why, today, the number of people ready to do anything to live like the rich and famous has increased, while the number of people ready to sit down and plan how to arrive at that millions has decreased drastically.

Doubt me? Ask 10 fresh graduates what their ten-year plan is and you will probably get a blank stare from 8 of them.

A life without a plan is a life mapped for failure.

Or He who fails to plan, plans to fail.

Let’s just take a moment and think this through: If you want to deliver a child in the US (a trend nowadays), you will have to figure out the following: How much its going to cost, when you intend to leave for the States, where you will stay, how you will take care of yourself before and after childbirth. You will have a plan for at least the 6 months surrounding your last trimester. You won’t just wake up one morning and head to the airport like a zombie, without telling anybody where you are going or discussing with your hubby.

The same applies to Success.

Success is not something you stumble into. Its premeditated. Like you know this is what you want and you plan out how you are going to get there, the steps you need to take.

But that’s not all.

Success is a very picky bride. She has a lot of suitors and takes them through difficult, challenging tasks to see who is worthy of her hand.

Only the one who is persistent and smart, wins her in the end.

Some people have great plans but abandon ship at the first sight of trouble. I know because I have been there once. But if you take a good look at many of today’s success stories like Mike Adenuga, Linda Ikeji, M.I Abaga, you will notice something: They had bad times. They had really bad days.

But they persisted.

They didn’t give up because things were getting rough. They didn’t throw in the towel because things weren’t going as they planned. And today they are celebrated.

Thomas Edison put it this way: “Our greatest weakness lies in Giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time“.

And Edison should know what he is talking about because he failed 99 times when inventing the light bulb. But he persisted and finally, on his 100th trial, he was successful.

I have learnt that if you have a solid plan and you are persistent, success will be yours. What’s your own take? Contribute and let’s learn from you too.

My sincere advice

First figure out what you really want in life, aside from money. Do you want to be a world-influence like Mother Theresa and greatly reduce poverty? Are you passionate about beautifying women and want to be the next Mary Kay? Do you just love food and want to create a franchise like McDonald’s? Or are you so driven, focused and ambitious that you see yourself as the next Condoleezza Rice?

After Figuring out what you want to achieve in your life, map out the steps that will take you there. Be really sincere with yourself. If its going to take a lot of money to get there, then you need to state how you can start small and grow.

Do not be daunted by your dreams. Because where there is a will, there is a way.

Are you fired up? Is there a step you believe will help others get even better results and achieve success sooner? Please share in the comments so we can all learn and grow together.