Quit My Job
Six years ago this week I quit my job.
So I recorded a video in my kitchen.
After leaving my six figure job of 15 yrs, I went broke.
Not cool.
Then I went back to a job for another 18 months, definitely not cool. As a matter of fact it took all I had not to have a nervous breakdown.
However, it was by far the best period of my life because of who I had to become.
If you want to have a life of freedom and have complete control over what you do and when you do it, while helping a large number of people - these next few videos are crucial.
You'll get inside my mind (a very scary place to be at times) and see the truth behind escaping the rat race for good.
Read MoreThe Big Guru Lie. It's All A Facade
I know you can be successful.
A pretty bold statement for sure but hear me out on this one.
Most people want to earn an income online but feel as though they don't have the knowledge, money or connections to sell their products.
Or they may lack the self confidence, thinking that success is reserved for the privileged few.
Maybe you don't want to have an online business and want to focus more offline but face the same challenges.
Here's a few things you need to know about me before we go any further:
- I'm not impressed by the size of a person's wallet
- The more "accessories" people have, the less impressed I am. Accessories can be defined as jewelry, fancy cars, big homes, etc.
- If someone positions themselves as a personal development guru, I immediately think they suffer from depression.
- If we have a conversation that lasts more than 10 minutes and you have not asked what I do, what I like or anything else that begins with who, what, where , when and how - then you're an ego-maniac.
These findings are unscientific of course but have allowed me to vet people pretty well throughout my corporate and entrepreneurial life.
When I was in corporate, I would always be leery of the person who was high on the corporate ladder.
Most of the time they had to step on many backs to get there. They had to kiss lots of backsides, remain fake and untrue to themselves, while treating subordinates like dirt. These executive's personal lives were a disaster, yet somehow they believed they could manage business differently - never happened.
If I told you how many alcoholics, adulterers and uber-insecure bundles of fluff I ran across in corporate, you'd fall over.
Or not.
You may say 'Yep, seen it myself Sam.'
At any rate, my point is this:
(quoting the great Depeche Mode)
People are people.
I have never, ever (and I mean Never) met a 'successful' business owner who didn't have as many, if not more flaws than you - probably way more.
The first key to being successful is to accept who you are but not where you are.
Difficult to do for some because they see others and want to emulate them. Trust me when I tell you - that is a curse. You don't know anything about these people except for the persona they have created. For most, it's an alter-ego. It's not who they really are when nobody is around.
Every now and again I attend events with some pretty well known gurus. I use the term guru because everyone knows what it means, not because these people are at the top of the food chain. I operate in the rare space of speaker and Internet marketer. Most speakers don't have a clue about online marketing and most online marketers would rather die than speak in front of an audience. I enjoy both.
Ironic isn't?
I stuttered pretty bad as a kid and young adult but found a way to cure most of it myself. I actually recorded a short video explaining how I solved my stuttering problem.
If you want, you can view it here, or send it to someone you know that has a speech problem: How To Overcome Stuttering
I have always had a passion for speaking but pretty much stunk at it because I couldn't get the damn words out of my mouth. Finally I had an epiphany: Just go with it Sam and stop worrying what others might think. A week from now they're going to forget what you said and you'll still be agonizing over a few words you messed up. Forget it dude, move on!
Great advice for business and in life - just move on.
People who love you will love you no matter what you say or do. People who judge will always be a critic. Forget them and focus on you and your passion.
I can't tell you how many idiots have mockingly said "Hey, every day is Saturday {snicker}." Then they go back to their job (and spouse) they hate, while wondering how the hell they're going to pay their bills this month.
Those snickers don't happen much any more, as you might imagine.
However, when I was fist launching EverydayIsSaturday.com six years ago, it happened daily. Mostly from that group of insecure bundles of fluff I referenced earlier.
Guess what those people are doing today?
Bingo!
The exact same thing they were doing six years ago - critiquing others as their meaningless life drags on.
You need to understand this concept. It will empower you to take action and go after that great idea that's been burning inside of you. Once you realize that all those successful 'gurus' you see online have larger problems than you could ever have, you will see that success is waiting for you.
When I'm at events I'm usually one of a very small group of people who are not divorced. I say this not to judge others but to illustrate the point that no matter how large your bank account is, if you can't see your kids every morning when you wake up, how happy can you really be?
Let me go one step further:
At a recent event, I was invited to a VIP dinner with a host of personal development speakers & trainers. There were nine people at the table. Eight had been divorced at least once ( I was the solo married person).
Isn't that odd?
These people have home study courses they charge thousands of dollars for about how to live the life you love but can't keep a marriage together. I know statistics are not in favor of a successful marriage but you would think more than one out of nine "experts" would figure out how to keep it together.
My wife would be the first to tell you that being married to an entrepreneur is tough. She thought she was marrying a successful executive with a lifetime of security. A person who would offer stability for her and our children. Then one day I decided to pull the rip cord on my career and go for it, turning our lives upside down.
There were many nights of pillow talk when my wife would ask "When do you think we'll be out of the woods? When will the creditors stop calling? When are you going to hit it big?"
She asked those questions often and had every right to ask over and over again.
I quit my job (the first time) with two kids under the age of five AND she was six months pregnant with our third. I filed bankruptcy seven days after our youngest daughter was born. Talk about adversity!
But we stayed together because we both wanted the same thing and it had nothing to do with money. It had to do with a life of Dad being more than just a name. We wanted our kids to know both of their parents and both of us being active in their lives. From drop offs and pickup at school, to impromptu trips to McDonald's. Pretty simple stuff.
I focused on differentiating myself from the masses and leading with my flaws. I never tried to be someone I wasn't or having money I didn't have.
Every Day Is Saturday is still around because I could care less what the nay-sayers thought and realized that the people who pretended to be experts were hurting more than I was, I just admitted it and helped others who suffered from the same problem I once had of unleashing the entrepreneur within.
I'm not a life coach. Is there really such a person? Who could possibly have all the answers to everything that happens in life?
Another great business lesson is this:
Generalists get paid, specialist get wealthy.
The more specific you are, the better your chances of success.
When someone introduces themselves as a life coach I think "You must be kidding." How can you build a brand and a following with something as general as that?
That's like a roofer saying "I build cities." It's impossible.
Find a niche within a niche that you are extremely passionate about and go for it.
Success will find you eventually but it won't be overnight. You see, success is a funny bird. It knows when people are just causal about their dream and can sniff out a phony in a New York minute.
If you give your marriage a try, you'll be divorced.
If you give parenting a try, your kids will end up with in the wrong crowd.
Why then, would you ever think that giving your business ' a try' would end up in anything other than massive failure.
The gurus you see online did one thing correctly and that was to stick with it.
They may not be who they say they are.
They may be more messed up than a 5 yr old's playroom.
They may suffer from every affliction known to man but...
They stuck with it.
And that's the key.
Success doesn't care how smart you are.
Success doesn't care how good-looking you are.
Success doesn't care how you were raised as a child.
All success wants to know is "How bad do you want it?"
When you stop moving, you're dead.
I'm writing this post on Monday morning at 9:30am when most people are at a job. Not a day goes by when I don't think about how miserable I used to be stuck in traffic, thinking of all the stuff waiting for me at work.
More importantly, I would think of what my kids were doing while I was gone for the next 8-10 hours.
When I shared this with people who had jobs, they would say "Sam, get over it. Your wife and kids understand you work and that's just the way it has to be. How else would you support them? We're all in the same boat"
I'm happy to say that I jumped ship and you can too.
The waters are rough, the seas will rise and you may feel a bit nauseous at times but the rewards are enormous.
Hang in there.
Don't pay attention to negative thoughts or negative people.
Understand adversity happens to all of us every single day.
When feel yourself asking "Will this ride ever get better. Will I ever realize my dream?"
Understand that's just Success saying "I'm still here waiting for you. How badly do you want it?"
Don't die with the music still in you.
Go for it!
Surprises Suck
Surprise!
It's pretty cool when you're friends are all hiding in a dark living room or kitchen, waiting for you to walk in on your birthday for that BIG surprise.
Gosh, that sure is fun.
It's not really fun however, when your spouse leaves you for another, or your business goes down the tubes.
Unfortunately, if you're 100% honest about it - it really wasn't that shocking. Once you got over the anger, the sick feeling in your stomach and tried to get the license plate of the truck that ran you over - you could have guessed it would end that way.
Great news: Today's video will teach you how to end all of the ugly surprises and set you up for your best days ever!
Eliminate surprises forever:
Become a full time Every Day Is Saturday Online Member
You Cannot Fit A Big Dream Into A Small Life
We're eleven days into 2011.
So how is this year shaping up for you?
Answering: "The year is still young, I don't know yet." ...is unacceptable. You know darn well if this year is going to start off with a bang {or not}.
What kind of momentum have you created the past few weeks?
Have you been extending your network? i.e. Meeting new people online and offline who you can serve? {notice I didn't say people who can help you make money}
I learned a long time ago that when you expand the amount of people you serve, you become more fulfilled. The money always follows as a result.
Expanding your sphere of influence doesn't have to be solely for entrepreneurs, it's just a little easier because you don't have politics, bosses, org charts or anything else standing in your way. You don't need approval to jump into the mix and make things happen.
We had a ton of comments on the last blog post titled Adversity Is A Blessing. I shared a ten minute video on how you never know the greatness that lies inside of you if you don't go through adversity.
Sometimes prosperity can hide amazing talents that would otherwise lie dormant if you didn't go through tough times.
Don't let the difficult climate prevent you from serving. As I mentioned on my last post, I launched Every Day Is Saturday a few months after filing chapter 13 bankruptcy.
I was faced with no:
Money
Network
Marketing Knowledge
Sales Funnel
Free time {until I learned how to steal time}
I asked one question: How can I serve more people?
Strange isn't it?
I was forced to go back into the workforce on a much lower pay scale and lost the corner office. Everyone thought I was on a crash course for a mid life breakdown and resigning myself to the next 20 yrs of my life as an employee.
What nobody realized was that my mind was working in the complete opposite manner. I felt relieved that I was no longer buying things I couldn't afford, with money I didn't have, to impress people I didn't even like. It felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and now I could just be me.
Did others make fun of me and my dream?
Of course!
Do you honestly think that you're going to stretch yourself and go after a huge dream while average people applaud your efforts? Average people are average for a reason. They never have, nor never will stretch in order to leave a small life behind. They're content with flying below the radar and that's great news for you.
As I say over and over again There is no competition at the top.
You cannot fit a big dream into a small life.
If you're going to be unstoppable, you need to create massive momentum around one idea.
Not 100 ideas.
You don't become great by doing 100 things right. You become great by doing one thing 100 times - or more like 1,000 times until your idea fits nicely inside the huge life you've created for it.
When I left my job in May 2005 I had a 750 credit score, a ton of confidence and cash in the bank. By the end of 2005 I had a credit score of 520 and no money. But I had hope.
You can lose all the material possessions in your life but if you still have hope you're in the game. Being in the game means your vision is clear on where the next step will be. When I say 'vision' I'm talking about seeing the unseen - stepping out in faith.
You don't need a big house, nice car and fancy job title to launch something huge. None of those things matter when you make the decision to serve. As a matter of fact, they'll get in your way if your mind is not clear on who you are and where you're going. Look around at any Starbucks and you'll see men and women sipping $6 lattes, working on $3,000 computers, dressed in $1,000 suits and all of them have $10 dreams.
Their main objective is to look important while doing unimportant tasks, with the goal of serving themselves first; if there's any leftovers, they'll give the crumbs away.
When I had the least, I had the most. When I had no money I had the best friends. When I lost the title, I gained a movement called Every Day Is Saturday. I left all the plaques, ribbons & awards behind because they were an albatross around my dream. I couldn't move forward with a huge dream when I still had a small vision and in turn a small life.
If you're going through a painful season right now I want to encourage you to find one thing - just one - and shine a magnifying glass over it until it gets hot. Tune out the "Who do you think you are" voice that will undoubtedly enter your mind. You also need to rid yourself of people who unknowingly will tell you to take it slow because they "Don't want you to get your hopes up." Pure craziness. Why wouldn't you get your hopes up? Mind you, these are the same people who never could squeeze a big dream into their small life. They may have taken a shot once before and got taken out - then gave up.
Remember, when you succeed, they {the small dreamers} look bad.
You don't need money to begin your journey to freedom. Money is so easy to acquire it's not even worth talking about. When people fail it's because they haven't given themselves permission to dream big.
Focusing on past failures is a waste of time and a sure fire way to guarantee another failure. When you play the game of life tentatively, you get hurt. No different than playing a sport worrying about injury.
When you go on the attack, you raise the odds in your favor.
Believe me, success will happen for you. It's not a matter if but a matter of when. Move away from people with small dreams, they're of little help. They can commiserate with you till the cows come home but will never be the fuel you need to ignite the dream.
it's up to you to find the right network to fuel the fire.
Start serving more people NOW.
Not tomorrow or next week or next year - NOW!
So how's your year going....?
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Adversity Is A Blessing
Happy New Year!
Please take a few minutes and watch this brand new video. It's a powerful message that will have you thanking your lucky stars for adversity and sever challenges.
Had I never went bankrupt, I would never have realized the incredible talents that were lying dormant.
Five years ago, I was forced to redefine myself in the business arena and blaze a new trail. I knew nothing about the online business world and had zero support inside a traditional business environment to become innovative.
When your back is up against the wall, it is then where your hidden talents come to the surface. You go into survival mode and come out the other end a new and improived version of your former self.
Enjoy the video and leave a comment how adversity has helped shift your beliefs, business and ulitimatley your success.
This video is dedicated to the true Champion who is forced to go in a different direction.
Congratulations on having the courage
Did this video inspire you?
There's plenty more inside the Every Day Is Saturday forum that you will not see anywhere else.
Join our growing community today - free for the first 15 days, then $7/month.
See you there!
How To Self Publish On Amazon.com
Most surveys show that 80% of people want to write a book.
You've probably had the same thought a few different times in your life. Maybe you're one of the few who have actually taken action and seen the process through to completion but most have not.
Today I'm going to give all of you "closet best-selling authors" a simple blue print to get your book on Amazon.com . It's so easy, a cavemen could do it:)
Keep in mind, I'm going to show you how to publish the book. I'm assuming you already have the information in your mind and ready to get those chapters flowing from your head to your hand. Or, you already have the book written and don't know how to upload it to Amazon.
Why Amazon? Because it gets a boatload of traffic every day.
One statistic I found said that on average, 4 million people visit Amazon.com each day. That may be a bit high, maybe low - their Alexa ranking is no joke.
Alexa ranks websites by popularity. The lower the number, the more popular the site. Amazon's Alexa's ranking is currently 15; meaning there are only 14 other sites on the planet that receive more traffic than Amazon.com
Check it out
Aside from the massive amount of traffic going to Amazon, there's another important reason why you want to self publish using this platform:
- It's easy
- It lends massive credibility to you and your brand
I teach thousands around the world how to monetize their passion by building a huge brand.
There's hundreds of ways to do this but if you can hit the ground running with a book - it builds credibility and creates momentum.
Part of my teachings involve contacting local and national media outlets to get your message to the masses.
When you contact TV & radio stations, they're going to do a bit of research. If you already have a link to your book on Amazon, you've saved them the research time and leap-frogged others looking for the same air time.
Think about how it would help your self esteem to see your book online!
I'm not going to teach you how to promote the book today, that's an entirely separate plan. Getting it published is the first step. So here we go:
Once you have your book saved on your computer, go to CreateSpace.com. Set up your free account and follow the instructions to upload your digital version of your book to the site.
Create space is owned by Amazon.com, everything you upload will be easily sent to Amazon.
Side Note: You can upload audio & video too - we're just focusing on your book today.
Once you're ready to have your book uploaded to CreateSpace.com , you're gong to need graphics completed for the front and back cover. Create Space gives you all the specs to upload your content but you may not be clear on pagination, PSD files, etc.
No worries.
Take the exact specs Create Space is asking for regarding pagination & graphics and head on over to Elance.com Post your project for graphic artists to bid on. Let them know exactly what you are doing. Include a link to the specs page at CreateSpace.com and welcome all bidders.
You want to outsource all of the uploading.
You're an author. Stick with brand-building & let others publish your book for you.
You will receive bids from all over the world from Elance providers. It's up to you how much you want to pay but I've had it done many times for different books and never paid more than $50 for the entire publishing process - including PSD files and pagination. I simply gave the specs to potential bidders and explained they need to do the entire job, no exceptions.
I give the Elance provider my username and password to my CreateSpace account to finish the process. If you're worried about the person having that type of information, just change it once they have uploaded your book.
Done.
Amazon will send you a proof of your book in paperback for you to approve. This usually takes about a week to receive your book. Once you review the book, go back to CreatSpace and approve - you're good to go.
You're now an Author - Woo Hoo!
Wasn't that simple?
Now it's time to put your PR machine to work.
As we discussed last week, you need an online sales funnel - no exceptions. When you begin getting media exposure, you don't want to be like 99% of all the others on TV. These people have no clue how to capitalize on exposure.
You do not want a brochure site with pretty graphics and pictures of your dogs.
You want a sales machine!
You're not going to earn significant income as a direct result of your book being on Amazon.com but you will earn lots of income because you're an author and you know how to promote.
Make sense?
Follow the steps above and work though the process of getting a book online.
If you don't have a book or feel like you don't have the time to write one yourself - use any of our 36 books we provide you with PLR rights.
Change all or nothing of the content inside the book.
At the very least, change the title put your name on it and upload to CreateSpace.
You can have your book done in an hour.
Here's our vault of books with graphics for you to use: The Self Help Vault
You can always write your own original book and follow the steps provided in this post.
Either way - do something! It's unacceptable to go through another year without taking massive action and separating yourself from the masses.
Live with Passion!
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