Category Archives: Mind Set

‘The Secret’ doesn’t work

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Happy New Year!

Have you seen the movie, “The Secret?”

I saw it. I loved it. I think I watched it three times. It made me feel really good about my life and my dreams and my aspirations…

… but you know what?

It doesn’t work!

The ideas in the movie are amazing – positive thinking, setting your intention, creative visualization, abundance mindset – but that’s not enough.

Never has been. Never will be.

Everyday, I meet bright-eyed positive thinkers who never get anything done.

I mean nothing.

They can’t pay their rent, they stay in crapy jobs they hate, they don’t go to the dentist… I could go on and on, but I’ll stop.

What the world needs is NOT more dreams. We need more action takers. More people who wake up in the morning when their alarm clock goes off (instead of hitting the snooze button 4 times).

We need people who eat more Steak and less broccoli. People who are serious about creating wealth, happiness and abundance in their lives…

… people who are NOT AFRAID to actually get off the couch and do something!

You can make “dream boards” or sit around “imagining” how you’d love your body and life to be all day long. It’s fun and uplifting, but ultimately pointless until you do something.

Let me tell you a story so you get this deep down under your skin.

My first bicycle was a hard rubber-tired Schwinn red & white tank that my dad fixed up for me.

It was a collector’s item to be sure, but it was not a bike that any kid in 1984 wanted to be seen riding around on.

What Will YOU Do To Get Your Mongoose?

The one I wanted was a Mongoose BMX with black mag wheels and a blue steel frame. My family didn’t have much back then, but instead of sitting around staring at the picture of the bike in a magazine hoping some positive thinking fairies were going to take pity on me and give me the bike of my dreams, I forced the issue.

I mowed lawns. I did chores. I cleaned cars.

It took me 9 months, but I saved up £268 pounds and I bought the damn thing myself. For cash.

That, my friend, is the real “Secret.”

Suck up your pride, strap on your boots, and get to work. You want something? Great, now take some massive action and get it.

Here’s why I’m telling you all this:

I’m a wealthy guy, but it’s not magic.

I found a system that worked – list building, PPC, copywriting – and I followed that system until I got the results I wanted. I work my ass off and I make sacrifices, take risk and get on with it.

My old bank balance was like that hard rubber-tired Schwinn. It was OK to look at, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to ride that thing around for the rest of my life.

Now, I got my BMX…

Want yours?

Do you really?

Then you have to get started, not sure how to get started?

Try putting £200 aside to learn and then pick something….anything to be an affiliate for, and start.

You’ll lose your £200.

BUT

You’ll LEARN and by learning you’ll get better. Afraid to screw up and lose £200?

Then stick to doing nothing, you’re not cut out to be an entrepreneur.

If you’re happy with your crappy old Schwinn… do what you’ve always done 😉

Neil

Its time to quit

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Neil Asher

Normally my e-mails are very upbeat and I’m shouting success from the rooftops, today however it’s time for some other reality.

Britain, Europe and America are in one hell of a recession.

The politicians are lying about it and the media is too blind to see it. However, consumers know. They know it in their guts and they’re running scared. They’re tightening up the purse strings like a hooker with a headache. Almost every entrepreneur I know says business is down. Way down. In my case, I’ve got media buys, PPC campaigns and print ads that, a short time ago were working like gang busters. But now, some are just limping along and sometimes, even losing money.

In this post, because of the economic situation, I simply want to give you something to think about. Something that can give you an “edge” during today’s tough times. So, get yourself a cold drink (beer/wine/milk/water), settle down in your favourite comfy chair and tell the kids not to disturb you so you can ruminate and cogitate about this.

It may be smartest to quit. Neil Asher

Let me tell you 2 little stories;

1. last night whilst reading Forbes I read a great story about an English guy who saw that Gold was at record highs and that the people in Greece are basically screwed.

Seeing an opportunity he moved to Greece and set up a pawn shop doing “Cash for old Gold” you’ve no doubt seen these shops on the high street.

Fact is they’re killing it making oodles of cash as people sell anything they can to get by.

So imagine how this went down in Greece where it’s customary to give Gold as gifts…. he’s making OODLES of cash! in fact he just raised €25 million to open 50 more shops to add to the 16 he opened in the first 8 months!

Lesson – stay open to opportunities as the market shifts, there is ALWAYS money to be made if you’re open to change.

2. I had a call from a VERY high profile seminar guy this week who wants me to help him with his business. I know he’s suffering because people only call me when they’re in the shit and they need my help to stay afloat…. BIG ego’s in business that don’t like admitting they’re screwed and need help.

anyway

I took a quick look at his niche and within 1 hour I knew he was f*cked (scuse the french). His business model is based on selling something people no longer want or need.

Yet he’s fighting to stay alive in his business because he’s too close to the business to see that niche is gone. He “is” the business, if that makes sense.

So, when I told him he should close the business and start in a new niche (I gave him the niche) he told me I was an idiot (reasonably true) and I didn’t know what I was talking about (also true), So I bid him farewell and I’ll take scant pleasure in seeing him struggle in a business that’s no longer viable.

When It’s Over, It’s Over!

Sure it’s hard. I know that. But when a love affair has gone irretrievably bad, when a business is no longer viable, when your media buys, PPC campaigns and direct mail letters stop working then… think about quitting, cutting your losses and getting into another game.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, 4 out of 5 of the businesses I test flat out don’t work, 2 lose money, 2 barely break even and only 1 will go onto to make a profit… out of 5 that make a profit only 1 is a blockbuster that I focus lots of energy on. I may LOVE the idea, but the market tells you if it’s working or not.

You’ve gotta detach from your business… YOU ARE NOT YOUR BUSINESS.

Know Thyself

The Delphic Oracle said it best

Know Thyself, Be Thyself, Love thyself.

Look, in spite of this bizarre metaphysical example, I’m trying to make a serious point here Neil asher

Has your business failed to make a profit for a long time? Do you see sales slipping and things getting tougher?

If so, maybe it’s not viable anymore. Maybe it never was. Maybe it’s time to close up shop and go on to something else. Think about it. That’s all I’m saying…

Business is TOUGH at the best of times, in a recessions you NEED every possible advantage with you just to survive, if you don’t have a product or service that people want anymore, maybe it’s time to change … Think about it.

Listen this is a call to action, take a step back from your life and with fresh eyes ask yourself “knowing what I know now would i get into this business, relationship, job or situation” if the honest answer is no, it’s time to act.

Neil Asher

Psycholog 101

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last week I sent out an e-mail with the subject line

“lets start a business together”

The e-mail went on to say I’d had a great idea for a book and I was going to work with 12 people to write it and then I’d spend my own money to promote it in magazines and online.

LOTS of people responded

I love psychology, you can tell what holds people back in life immediately from their initial e-mails to me.

People generally fall into 1 of 4 camps when they e-mail me:

1. Gung Ho!

LETS DO THIS NEIL! is the battle cry of the Gung Ho! types, no info needed, no questions to ask, by the time they’ve read my e-mail they already have the first page written out and they’re starting on book 2.

If you’re Gung Ho! you probably have the following pattern you run:

– New idea!!!!! YAY!!! I love my new idea!!!

– Ok lets get started, lots to do,

– flurry of work

– sleep

– hmm new idea….. not so sure

– bit more work

– kinda bored with that idea…..

– sleep

– New idea!!!!! YAY!!! I love my new idea!!!

repeat in some crazy OCD loop

recognise that?

I do because this is me. ADHD entrepreneur. The big challenge for us is to get something completed. I’ve had to do a ton of work to moderate the desire to have something new in my life all the time.

Try this, next time you get a new idea write it down and do nothing. sleep on it. whilst you do nothing focus on finishing your “old” business until it works.

Once it works, either; sell it, employ someone to manage it or get a business partner who likes to tinker with businesses.

2. Cautiously optimistic

We can do it with each other! is your mantra if you’re C.O.

C.O people love a team, they thrive when they’re with others. They tend to not like leading but prefer to work in a group.

C.O. people are VERY well suited to projects like this, they usually have good follow through and work well in a team.

If you recognise yourself or someone close as C.O you have a choice to make.

Accept that you love working in a team and forgo the leadership hassles of being the boss or learn to accept criticism.

Most C.O.’s tend to have a fear of criticism… (we all do BTW it’s just what we make it mean that changes)

3. Sceptical.

Sceptical people tended to want to get LOTS of details in place BEFORE they wrote a single word, how would the IP rights work overseas? what happens if one of us dies half way through? what will the company share holder agreement look like?

Get the idea?

For these people their biggest challenge in life is getting started. If I were coaching you I’d say “just get started, we can work out all the what ifs when we actually have something to sell. Until you have something to sell those questions are irrelevant.

If you need everything to be in place before you take any action just know that it never is…. even when you have some things in place they ALWAYS change as you’re going along…. always.

4. Poo Poo’ers

Poo poolers have given up before they’ve even started.

“This will never work Neil” “how will you manage 12 people to write a book, it can’t be done” (I used to manage 100 chefs and wait staff so 12 people writing a book is a piece of pi$$ after that) “It will never sell Neil”

Poo Poo’ers use this as a way to avoid failing, their greatest fear.

They have usually failed at something when they were younger and made it mean they were bad people, and now they avoid anything new for fear they’ll fail again.

They freak out when I tell them I start 5 new businesses a month and 4 of them fail spectacularly!

This for a poo poo’er is like dying 4 times a month.

Worst of all poo poo’ers then try to talk other people out of starting so they don’t feel bad about being cowards.

If you’re a poo poo’er or you know one, my advice is to get a job and work for someone else. LOTS of people will tell you that change is easy, it’s not.

Change takes an incredible amount of consistent work. Poo poo’ers are usually good at their jobs just bored with them. So get a hobby and focus on that, pick a hobby that you like and focus on getting very good at that instead.

Not everyone can be a risk taker.

Not everyone can be an entrepreneur.

To think otherwise is just naive, most people are much happier taking courses and talking about entrepreneurship than being an entrepreneur…. and that’s perfect.

So if you see yourself or people you know in those 4 types above just know that we’re all the same, in some areas we are poo poo’ers and others we’re Gung ho!

Now to get back to managing 12 people for our new book!

Neil

 

Getting a divorce

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Getting a divorce

I have a business that is doing OK.

It makes makes a small profit, it’s a cool little business and i like the product it sells.

BUT

I’ve been working on it for a year now and It’s still not doing great and I have to face the reality that it never will.

If I look at the time I invest in the business each week 7 – 10 hours I have to be a realist and ask myself

“Could I use that time in another business and get a better ROI?”

The answer is yes…. specifically the answer is I’ll never know unless I try.

Lots of people stay in relationships because it ‘tolerable’ it’s not great and it’s not terrible, it’s OK.

I think this is slow death.

But that’s me.

I hear lots of people stay in jobs that they no longer like as well… I tend to think that these people must have forgotten that they are dying. I think when you remember this and truly believe it then it becomes VERY hard to do anything at all unless you actually want too.

For me business is a relationship.

It’s easy to start a business and when you do there is a rush of euphoria, everything is new, the learning curve is steep.

Then you take the rose coloured glasses off, you see the problems with the business.

your business is better than mine

There is the inevitable ‘grass is greener’ phase where you look at other peoples businesses and think there’s is better.

And then for most people we come to a deeper level of love and respect for the business.

Over time though that can wane, and when it does it’s time to spice things up (i’m loving all these sexual metaphors :p) new products, new services and new ideas… sometimes even a new member to the team!

But alas, for some businesses it’s no good, what was once working, no longer does. For these businesses 2 choices remain.

1. To sell/close it

2. To soldier on ‘tolerating’ it.

Sometimes you have to let it go. It’s best for both of you.

So I’ve decided to close the business, sure `i could sell it, but finding a buyer takes time and energy again and for me I’d rather just move on.

You’ve gotta know when to hold em and you’ve gotta know when to fold em.

If you’re soldiering on with a career, business, friendship or business that is just OK…. it’s time to make a decision.

Remember it’s hard to let new things into your life when you’re holding on to old things.

Neil

P.S Hmmm now that I think about it I wonder if people who jump from one e-book to the next have got commitment issues?

Fear of failure would seem like a glib and too simplistic diagnosis, yet commitment issues tend to be all about fear of failure.

If you’re jumping from one thing to another without actually giving anything a real try, maybe it’s time to stop.

winning!

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How To Win!

Neil Asher How To Win And Feel Good

I’ve been experimenting with a new lifestyle hack recently that I got from Matt Cutts with great sucess so I thought I’d share it with you.

Every 30 days I try something new.

Simple huh?

But, it’s incredibly powerful.

Last month I commited to 30 days of exercising and the results have been so good that I’m in a groove with it now and I’m just kinda carrying on with it.

The month before I committed to doing 1 SEO back link per day and guess what, it’s become a part of my normal routine, 365 quality back links is an incredible way to dominate Google.

My try something new for 30 days experiment for this month is very interesting.

Every day I write 1 thing I really like about myself.

Ever have a day when you don’t feel like you’re “WINNING!” I do, we all do, but since I’ve been doing my something great about me experiment I haven’t had a day like that.

How powerful would it be if you wrote 365 great things about you?

How much would that alter your psychology?

I don’t know, but I do know that what you think about you creates your outer world.

Give it a try!

Pick something new and commit to doing it for 30 days, if after that you don’t like it move onto the next thing.

I’d love to know if you choose to give this a go for 30 days so feel free to e-mail me with your new thing.

Neil

 

How to tell what someone is really saying

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Neil Asher

How To Tell What Some Is Really Saying - Neil Asher

Everything is a Freudian slip!

You’ve heard of Freudian slips right?

A Freudian slip is what Freud postulated happens when a repressed part of the subconscious frees itself through the voice, conversation and behaviours.

An example of this would be a conversation I had with a friend recently when they told me on 5 occasions in less than 2 minutes that they didn’t have the time for their wife. Or when a client found 5 ways to not make it to a session because she knew I was going to “call her” on some behaviour that wasn’t serving her and ask her what was the foundation of it.

Now think about that statement: “I don’t have the time for my wife” what could we assume from this?

Well we could assume that the client is “time sensitive” and that time is important to them, so a possible line of questioning could be about time pressures and how it’s effecting them.

“I don’t have time for my wife” … why not? What prevents you from having time? What would happen if you made the time?

Language tells us SOOOO much about someone if we will only “listen’ to what they are saying and not saying.

I have found in a coaching sessions that people will generally tell you what is wrong with them and how to help them all in the first 5 minutes of coaching.

The next 55 minutes are doing what the client has asked you to do so they can move forward again and make conscous the unconscious desire to get moving again.

Let me say this bold statement.

You already know exactly what you need to move forward in life, your role is to simply get out of the way and really listen to what you say to yourself so you can get where you want to go.

Try this and you’ll see it’s true.

Really listen to somebody as they talk, be inquisitive, ask questions and then listen to the answers.

Don’t offer any comments, leave uncomfortable silences, see what comes to fill them, resist the temptation to fill them yourself, let your friends fill them.

Once your friends know at the subconscious level that you can help they will literally give you the keys to their future in the hope that “finally someone will listen”: not many people listen to their subconscious desire and motives.

When there subconscious feels you will, it will tell you EXACTLY what you need to know.

Your role then is to feed it back to the conscious mind and to rationalise the directive of their subconscious for the them so they can get it

This is being a friend at its highest level.

Try it for yourself

Tell me how you go and I look forward to hearing all about how well you connect and listen to your clients and friends and what a difference it makes in their and your life.

A couple of cool books for this is the psychopathology of everyday life by Sigmund Freud and Robert Johnson “inner work”.

Johnson is a Jungian analyst and as you may know Carl Jung is the father of Coaching Psychology and was an early student of Freud’s before they split because Jung felt their was more to the unconscious than repressed sexual desires!

A good primer on Jung is Man and his symbols.

Have fun listening to your subconscious letting you know how to self actualize your life.

Neil Asher

P.S understanding what people truly want is the foundation of great marketing imho

The best Steve Jobs Quotes

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The best Steve Jobs Quotes

The best Steve Jobs Quotes

The best Steve jobs quotes in no particular order:

1.  in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. … Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”

 

2. in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“I read a study that measured the efficiency of locomotion for various species on the planet. The condor used the least energy to move a kilometer. Humans came in with a rather unimpressive showing about a third of the way down the list….That didn’t look so good, but then someone at Scientific American had the insight to test the efficiency of lomotion for a man on a bicycle and a man on a bicycle blew the condor away.

That’s what a computer is to me: the computer is the most remarkable tool that we’ve ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.”

 

3. in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.”

 

4. in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“My sex life is pretty good these days, Walt. How’s yours?”
— Jobs’s response to a question from Walt Mossberg about how Jobs feels about Google and if he feels “betrayed.” (June, 2010)

(Jobs also added, “Well they decided to compete with us. We didn’t go into the search business.”)

 

5. in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“[Y]ou can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

 

6. in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“Picasso had a saying: ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas…I think part of what made the Macintosh great was that the people working on it were musicians, poets, artists, zoologists and historians who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.”

 

7. In The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

 

8. In The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“We’ve kept our marriage secret for over a decade.”
— Jobs’ answer to Kara Swisher asking about the “greatest misunderstanding” in Jobs’ relationship with Bill Gates.

 

9. The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it into a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people–as remarkable as the telephone.”

 

10. in The best Steve Jobs Quotes

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”

 

11. in the The best Steve Jobs Quotes:

“We’ve never worried about numbers. In the market place, Apple is trying to focus the spotlight on products, because products really make a difference. […] Ad campaigns are necessary for competition; IBM’s ads are everywhere. But good PR educates people; that’s all it is. You can’t con people in this business. The products speak for themselves.”

 

These are IMHO The best Steve Jobs Quotes RIP

Steve Jobs

 

Neil Asher

 

 

More Get Rich Slowly Math

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How much is enough?

I often ask myself this question…

heres how to work it out.

First list all the things you want in life, here's some ideas;

Home
Car
Cleaner
Nice schools for kids
Holidays
Eating out
etc etc

then take that list and break it down into monthly payments

so, a nice home to rent (I'd advise against buying your home)
would be say £4000 a month depending on where you live etc

(do your research and find your figure)

Car to rent would be £4000 a month or so (depending on the car)

cleaner = £500 a month
School = £1000 a month
Holidays = £2000 a month

and so on until you have a big list of stuff and a monthly price
next to it.

then tally up your monthly bills, lets say you're at £15,000 a month

divide that by 30 to give you your daily total = £500 a day

Divide that by the average commission on a product of £20 
= 25

So to get everything in life you want you need to make 25 sales a day

about 1 sale per hour, get the idea?

OK

Now your average conversion rate for a sale page is 2%

So to get 1 sale you must send 50 people to the sales page (100/2)

So now your task is not making 1 sale per hour it is telling 50 people per hour 
about this product, get the difference?

So now the question

"How can you tell 50 people per hour about this product?"

The answer to that in future e-mails :-)

For now work out your "get everything you want"
number, it's usually lower than you think :-)

was for me at least…

Enjoy your weekend!

Neil

P.S why get rich slow? well the truth is that's how it happens for 99.99%
of people, you're not dumb, you know the truth and you can see
right through those dumb "get rich by pressing a button" BS products
So instead lets focus on getting financially free.

you explained….why you do the things you do

Posted on by 
I had a great e-mail yesterday from one of my subscribers

asking me how I get so much done (I get less done than

you'd think)


It got me thinking about why we do the things we do.


Your subconsious mind is amazing, it is the genius that runs

your body and life


Our rational mind is great fun too but compared to the

subconsious it pales in importance when it comes to

understanding behaviour


Back when I'd finished my Psychology degree and we started

New Insights I was fortunate enough to coach many many

people from multi millionaires to Diplomats, Celebrities to

homeless guys on the streets and much much more.


I began to see a predictable pattern that went something

like this:


Some (percieved) painful event in someones past creates

emotional pain.


The subconscous mind creates a set of new behaviors to

help avoid that pain in the future


whilst the higher mind brings the necessary circumstances

into being to show you the value of it


The rational mind cannot comprehend the magnitude of all

this and tries to "think of the solution"


You, become confused and seek answers both at the rational

level and subconscoius level.


Here's an example; I coached a diplomat for a while who

drank a lot at night, he couldn't understand why he did

this (rational mind) and wanted it to stop.


He came to me for help; after talking for a while I began

 to ask him questions.


Me "If you didn't drink at night what would you do?'


Him "Why I'd work of course, I'm very busy and need to

continue working at home"


Me "When you do drink what do you do?"


Him "I tend to watch TV or sit and talk in the garden"


Me "What's great about doing that for you?"


Him "Great? what do you mean? I'm here for help not to

have you cheer leading me drinking!"


Me "Listen, you're here for help, play with me here and

lets see where this takes us ok?"


Him nodding "OK, well I guess I do spend some great

time with my son at night and I really enjoy getting to

know him more and it's nice to talk with my wife and

forget about work for a while…."


See where this is going?


It turns out he loved spending time with his family but

felt guilty about doing that due to some percieved earlier

pain from his father, so his subconscious mind had started

him drinking knowing this would kill 2 birds with 1 stone;


Stop him working

Get him relaxed


We may say this is bad behaviour to drink yet it is the most

elegant solution to this problem.


Here's what I've learnt;


All behaviour serves. Procrastinating for instance generally

means you're not ready and need more information, we have

labelled this bad, yet the opposite is true.


Everything you do serves, think you did someone wrong in

 your past? Think again, everything serves, we are inexplicably

drawn to those that we need to meet to learn our lessons. 


Everything serves.


The subconscience is trying to meet a need, so far the only

need I've seen consistently is the need to love and be loved. 


So I have to assume this is the over riding creative drive for

everything we do.


But your subconsious does not work in a rational way, it has

FAR more resources available to it than mere thought, thus

it creates the simplest way to do that through your behaviour.


Your rational mind tries to understand a complex (to your

rational mind) sequence of events but in truth never can.


Einstein said it best:


“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is

a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors

the servant and has forgotten the gift.”


So next time you don't understand why you're doing something

or why someone else is doing something just realize that they

are trying to be loved or give love and their behaviour is the sum

of their subconscious mind with all it's resources finding the

simplest and most elegant way to do that.


Neil