Author: Joan Arca

You’re screwing it up… just stop it!

A lot of people have the E-brake on. You might be one of them.

Here’s what that means:

When things don’t work out in our businesses – or at work – we often blame other people, outside factors, and other circumstances.

You blame your co-workers.

You blame the people you hired.

You blame the marketing or sales.

You might even blame the potential customer.

“The market just doesn’t understand what I have.”

You think you need…

• Better closing skills
• A slicker sales funnel
• A more compelling offer
• Or the latest sneaky marketing trick being hawked by the so-called “gurus” out there.

After you finish playing the blame game, you simply give up and give in.

But here’s the cold, hard truth about what’s really going on.

You’re throwing the fight.

You aren’t giving your best.

You’re making excuses and taking the easy way out.

I can tell.

You see, thousands of clients have gone through my various coaching programs.

Put me in a room of 100 lions and within ten minutes I can tell you which of those lions don’t hunt.

I know when a person has real marketing problems…

…and when a person has self-sabotage issues and lacks belief in their ability and product.

In fact, and he won’t mind me saying this, our good friend, Craig Ballantyne, is one of those people.

That’s right, Craig himself still has self-sabotage issues.

And you do, too. I guarantee it.

You know that you can be further ahead in your business, in your personal growth, and in your impact on this world.

But you’re getting in your own way.

I call this self-sabotage issue, “the E-brake problem.”

But it’s not your fault.

Let me explain.

Let’s say that I give you and Craig a brand new Ferrari. That’s a sports car, but if the Emergency brake (the E-brake) is slightly pulled up, then it won’t go faster than a Honda Civic.

Even though it’s a Ferrari, it’ll perform like a jalopy.

That’s because the car has been neutered.

Likewise, most people have subconsciously neutered their potential, drive, and success… What’s worse is that they don’t even know it because they blame EVERY other outside factor for their shortcomings.

They are holding themselves back.

They’ve got the E-brake on and they wonder why they can’t seem to get the speed and performance they’re capable of even though they’re in a sports car.

You might have a great idea and a hungry market that needs your help, but if you’ve got the e-brake on, you’ll never get where you want to be.

But the only way for you to succeed and play at a higher level is to drop the damn E-brake!

You have value to add to the world.

You have lives to change.

You have the ability to make a massive impact on the lives of millions…

Just like Craig.

That’s one of the reasons he recently re-hired me as his coach – even though we’re business partners.

Craig was wise enough to know that he needed help.

He needed a mentor to guide him and to stop himself from holding back.

Now we meet together, one on one at my HQ and on coaching calls. We work on the two or three factors that are going to move the needle the most in his business and life.

Small changes, MASSIVE RESULTS.

You need help dropping your e-brake, too.

It might be that you’re afraid of criticism, afraid of what other people might say, afraid of what your family might think or how they’ll judge you, afraid of failure and even afraid of success.

Instead of going all out and being the high performing human you’re meant to be you hold back because you’re being selfish and protecting yourself from what others think…

…More accurately, you’re protecting yourself from what YOU think others will think of you.

So how do you drop the E-brake and accelerate down the road to success, income and impact?

The answer comes from one place: your belief system. Your belief system needs to change if you want to change your trajectory.

For example, you might have a negative money-mindset that your parents put in your head.

Perhaps they told you that money’s bad, that money’s for the rich, that other people have success and we don’t, that we’re the working class and will never be anything else, or that the rich have knowledge or opportunities that you don’t.

That negative belief system can be crippling.

It’s one that has held back Craig for a long time.

He’s now overcoming it, but let me tell you, the anti-abundance chains can be a heavy, heavy weight.

The negative self-talk in your head and heart has been there for so long and it’s got to change. That’s what I fiercely focus on while helping Craig and my other Domination Day clients.

Our childhood experiences shape us, and they shackle us.

You might know the feeling.

There are other pains from the past that can keep us in a mental prison.

You might have been on the receiving end of a cruel comment from a schoolteacher.

Or you might have been abused, like I was as a little boy.

Bad things happened to me when I was just a 4-year old kid in Armenia, before our family immigrated to America.

Because of this trauma, I found a million reasons in my life to fail at things, sabotage my success, and limit the impact I was making.

I failed at things on purpose.

Procrastination was one of my bad habits ten years ago before I released the brake.

I’d have a good idea and set it aside for “the future”, and then never get around to it.

I went broke in my first business, an online supplement company, because I didn’t feel like I deserved success.

I would go through the motions of what a successful entrepreneur would do… but then I always found a way to fail, falter and sabotage myself.

The truth of the matter is that I had the knowledge to help people and yet I was too afraid to share it.

You can call it emotional constipation, the E-brake, or a lack of faith in myself and what I had to offer.

I pulled my punches.

I threw that fight.

It took years for me to get over it.

But eventually, when I started to work on my personal development, change my belief systems, cut out the negative people and in my life and reprogram my thought patterns, I was finally able to break free!

I gave myself permission to succeed.

The time had come to stop holding back, to go out and add massive value to the world, to be an evangelical believer in the message I am here to share.

That’s how I dropped the F’ing E-brake!

Join me.

When you drop the E-brake, ideas flow to you and all of a sudden you magically have the courage to take action and do the work until you’ve accomplished the outcome.

When you drop the E-brake you automatically overcome the bad habit of procrastination and pulling punches once and for all.

Listen, you have an obligation to get your solution, service or product in the hands of as many people as you can so that you can make a change in their lives.

That is how you will free yourself – by first believing in yourself, and then by giving of yourself to the world without fear of criticism, self-doubt or sabotage.

It’s the message that I’ve told Craig over and over again, and I can see him believing in it now more than ever. It shows in his business and the greater impact he’s making worldwide.

And, let me tell you, he’s a great student.

Everything I instruct him to do he does without procrastination, and even if it’s uncomfortable for him.

He takes action.

He works on the skills he needs to improve.

He practices his presentations more than ever.

He asks for feedback and course corrects instantly.

More importantly, he is man enough to accept constructive criticism, and he goes back to work on his weaknesses.

And you can too.

Join Craig.

Join me.

Release the brakes.

It all starts with the belief that you have a unique gift and purpose to share with the world.

And then you need to take massive action.

You don’t need more education.

You just need to take what you know and do it ’til it’s done!

You just need to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.

Add your value. Sell your message.

Do the work. Fall down.

Get up. Do it again.

Each time you do the E-brake will drop lower and lower…

…And you’ll go faster and faster.

Trust me.

This approach to life is working for Craig, it worked for me, and it’s worked for many of the multi-million dollar producing private clients who I’ve worked with…

…and it will work for you, too.

If this message resonates with you and you know it in your gut, then you might be a good fit for my Domination Day Mentorship program.

Go here >> https://bedroskeuilian.com/consulting/ to learn all about it, and if it’s right for you, apply to work with me.

Talk soon,

Bedros

Have you ever had a YouTube video get over 100,000 views? Are you curious what that’s like?

I can tell you…it feels amazing and a little bit surreal.

See, I do have a video with over 100,000 views – it’s my infamous GSD video, which you can check out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvJIFYxOf7Q

Now it’s funny, when people talk about a video “going viral” they always make it out to be like magic…something that just randomly happens to videos…a fluke…

But the truth is, the success of my GSD video was the result of a strategic system I developed to dominate YouTube.

In other words, I planned to have that video go viral and it worked.

And today, I want to show you how to follow my same system.

First off, let me explain why videos are so important…

Why Videos Matter

If you want to become a true thought leader in your industry, you ABSOLUTELY MUST put out videos on a consistent basis.

This is not just about short-term marketing – this is about building BRAND. This is about earning access to the incredibly fun and lucrative opportunities that are only available to high-performance entrepreneurs.

Do you ever imagine yourself up on stage talking about your business, with a crowd of thousands hanging on every word?

Do you ever imagine big name players in your industry walking up to YOU and seeking out your input and collaboration?

Do you want to create a business and a legacy that will keep generating income and opportunities for your family for generations?

Then you need to build brand. You need to become a celebrity in your industry.

And videos build brand faster than any other medium.

Why?

Videos just have this funny effect on people…let’s call it the “as seen on TV” effect.

See, early on in my career as a business coach, I mostly relied on blogs, e-books, and email newsletters to spread the word about me and get my message out. Those are all fine tools, and I built up a considerably large audience with them.

And of course, I had live events as well.

But then something happened when I started taking video content seriously and developed my YouTube domination system…

See, in the pre-video days, people would walk up to me at live events, ask to make sure it was me, then smile politely and shake my hand.

Once I started getting people who had found me on YouTube…man, the reaction was completely different.

People’s jaws would drop when they saw me. Some people, the ones who were really struggling, would start crying instantly and want to hug me and thank me for helping them.

In other words, their reaction went from “Hey, you’re Bedros, right?” to “HOLY CRAP IT’S BEDROS KEUILIAN!”

That’s the essence of the “as seen on TV” effect. It immediately makes you this larger-than-life character in the eyes of your audience.

As you might imagine, this leads people to pay more attention to you, trust you more, and be more ready to refer you to their friends.

And of course that leads to greater sales and greater income for you, right?

BUT WAIT! If that’s the only benefit that comes to mind for you, you’re still thinking tactics. The real beauty of the celebrity effect is how it affects your long-term strategy.

Once you have the celebrity effect, you not only get to command higher prices, but you have a ticket to get past most (and eventually all) of the gatekeepers in your industry.

If someone has the experience and the connections in your industry to be a gatekeeper, you’ll never be able to fool them.

They’ve seen it all. They don’t care how good your idea is on paper, they don’t care how hard you work, they don’t care about your qualifications.

THE ONE THING THE GATEKEEPERS CARE ABOUT IS WHETHER THE MARKET CARES ABOUT YOUR IDEA.

And if you can point to a crowd of thousands who are shouting your name and telling everyone they know about you, then you’ve got that proof.

THAT is why you need the celebrity, “as seen on TV” effect if you want to make the millies and billies and achieve the ultimate freedom and abundance.

Now here’s how you do it…

The System for Dominating YouTube

The first step is to be authentic. By that, I really mean two things:

One, you actually have to know your stuff. You need to have real, in-the-trenches experience in your industry and valuable insights to share about that.

Two, don’t overthink it. Being a celebrity doesn’t mean throwing on a fine Italian suit and making up some wacky accent to sound smart. If that’s not who you really are, people are going to smell the insincerity and stop listening.

Sure, you want to be clean and presentable while filming, but honesty really is the best policy when it comes to brand building.

Why waste your time and energy maintaining a lie when it’s totally possible to kick in the celebrity effect with your actual personality?

Shoot, man, look at me! I’m awkward, I’m hairy, I’m a meathead – but the tribe I’ve built is full of people who’ve come to understand me and actually celebrate my rough edges.

So be authentic…and when you plan your videos, think very carefully about who your audience is and what they’re going through. What is the one thing you can show them that day – a piece of advice, an offer, secret insider knowledge – that will make a huge difference for them?

Going back to my GSD video, I knew that personal discipline was a huge pain point for most of my audience, so I made them a video telling them exactly what to do to address that. The result was huge.

Now pay attention to how I start the video: I immediately define who I am, what I am an expert in, and what this video means to their success.

That’s how you want to start EVERY SINGLE VIDEO. This is just classic memorization. The more you repeat who you are to your audience, the more they will remember it and believe it.

THEN, once you’re done giving out your expert advice, you want to close each video with at least two calls to action.

The first call to action is up to you. It depends on your strategy. In the GSD video, I send the viewer to my blog because, for people who are still new to my work, I want to get them reading my blog and following my email newsletter so I can keep adding value to their businesses before I start asking for anything.

The second call to action is to ask everyone to like and share your video and subscribe to your channel. Also, if you don’t plan on disabling them, ask the viewer to leave a comment.

All these activities signal Google to rank your channel higher on YouTube search results and to recommend your video to people searching for similar topics.

If you put out enough great videos and get enough engagement, before you know it you might come up as number one in Google’s search rankings with your YouTube thumbnail video. And that’s really what you want. You want search engine dominance so that your competitors can get crushed.

Committed to your success,

Bedros

In the life of any entrepreneur there are enemies and allies to your progress. The key to greatness is sorting out those enemies and allies so that you can spend more time and energy on the allies and ignore or avoid the enemies.

Today I want to talk about how you can identify the allies and enemies in your own life.

Now this may seem like an obvious thing…but anything that seemsobvious is something you might take for granted. Or something that might be more complicated than you think.

For example: with where I’m at in my career, a lot of people would be tempted to say I’ve “made it.”

Personally, I believe in never peaking, so I don’t usually think of myself as the guy who “made it.” I think of myself as the guy who has many more mountains to climb. And honestly, this seems to be a pretty common attitude among super successful people.

But for the sake of this argument, let’s say I have made it.

Guess what: I’m still discovering new enemies and new allies in my life that I never knew I had!

So it’s important for all of us, wherever we are in the journey, to think carefully about the enemies and allies in our lives.

Sabotage is Your Enemy

The first thing you have to realize about this process is that it’s not about what you like or dislike.

In fact, a lot of the most dangerous enemies for an entrepreneur are the ones that seem comfortable or enjoyable at first glance.

Think of it this way: if some stranger were to walk up to you and tell you your idea sucks, that might get under your skin, but at least it’s out in the open. You can pretty easily discount that guy’s opinion and move on.

But what if there’s someone in your life who loves you (or says they do) and they tell you “not to aim too high”? What if they claim that they’re “trying to keep you safe” and “protect you from disappointment”?

Or maybe that voice is in your own head…

Whoever is saying that, whether it’s your best friend, your significant other, your family, or yourself, you need to sit down with them and have a serious talk.

Because the truth is, that voice of safety and comfort is an enemy to your progress.

Come on man, you’re an entrepreneur! You’re supposed to get your hands dirty! You’re supposed to grind and grind and grind til you think you’ve run dry! You’re supposed to fail, over and over again, until you get it right in a big way!

Taking the comfortable route, or the safest route, or even the most balanced route, is not going to put you in a position to make the big wins you need to be a true leader.

Regardless of the person’s intentions, when someone tells you to take the “safe route” they are sabotaging you.

Now does that mean you have to cut them out of your life entirely? Let me put it this way: you are 100% in control of who you spend your time with, who you talk to, and you listen to.

Maybe letting go of certain people will liberate you. Maybe for others you just need to spend less time with them. Your call.

Besides, look at where that “stay safe” advice is coming from…I’m willing to bet that the people saying that have never experienced any huge successes in their careers.

Sure, they may have an “okay” job and “okay” money, and maybe they’re doing great in other parts of their lives, but let’s be real here: are any of them making 6, 7, or 8 figures?

Because let me tell you: most of my closest friends are in the 7 and 8 figure range, and they are all OBSESSED with taking risks, trying new things, going out on a limb, getting their hands dirty, and failing faster so they can learn faster.

Speaking of which…

Mentors and Role Models Are Your Allies

Any successful person can tell you that the first rule of wealth is to make smart investments.

An “investment” can be a lot of different things…it’s not always just buying stocks or property.

In fact, the most powerful and long-term wealth building investments you can make, especially early in your career, are investments in your own knowledge and skills.

You can do this with blogs, YouTube videos, books, DVDs, audio programs, podcasts…those are all great places to start.

However, the most effective way to build your skills and knowledge is through coaching programs, mentors, and role models.

I know personally that my career REALLY took off when I started attending mastermind classes on marketing, selling, and business development.

I had gotten pretty far already on audio books and free online content, but once I was able to watch real successful people in action with my own two eyes, and receive hands-on guidance for my specific challenges, that is when my profits SOARED!

Now I’ve been lucky to occasionally receive free coaching and guidance from mentors like Jim Franco…but for the most part I have paid for my coaching with my own money.

Look, I didn’t call it an “investment” for nothing. If you really want to succeed, you need to put your money where your mouth is.

PLUS, I’ve noticed a funny thing now that I run several masterminds of my own: the people who pay the most for their coaching tend to be the most dedicated, most hard-working, and ultimately most successful in the group.

And you know what’s even crazier? I’ve seen people switch from month-to-month payments to paid in full halfway through their contract…and suddenly those SAME PEOPLE are working harder and getting even greater results than when they started!

Now what’s going on there?

Well, it turns out that there’s a lot of psychological research behind this.

Basically, the more you invest in something, the more likely you are to take it more seriously in the future. It creates this positive feedback loop in your head that looks like this:

I made a big investment in this program…

That means this program must be very important to me…

And since it’s important, I’m going to invest even more of my time and energy into it so I can make sure I get the maximum value out of it…

Hey, that worked! I’m going to do that again!

Of course, the biggest benefit of seeking out mentors, coaches, and role models is always going to be full immersion. Let me explain what I mean by that.

Over the course of my career, I have absorbed knowledge from some of the most successful people on the planet. People like Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, Dan Kennedy, and Joe Polish…

But by far the biggest contributing factor to my success has been watching my own good friend Craig Ballantyne in action.

With all the coaching programs we run together, I spend A LOT of time with the guy, and to this day I am amazed by his level of discipline, focus, and generosity.

Seeing him in action gives me zero excuse to slow down, slack off, or make excuses. And he inspires me to constantly improve myself and stay true to the vision I have for my life and business, because that’s what he’s doing. It’s full immersion in the process of successful living.

So go out there and find your greatest ally: your Craig Ballantyne. The person who embodies your key values in a massive way and inspires you to thrive. The person who will give you that full immersion experience of success.

By the way: coaching programs and masterminds are one of the best ways to find people like that. They tend to attract success-minded people, and the best of them are designed around group collaboration.

If you’re curious about getting a coach, make sure you check out my Coaching and Consulting Program.

You can see your ideal clients in the near distance. They’re all neatly bundled together in the same spot, hanging out together and sharing the same conversation.

And you know that if you could just get in there and offer your services, you could make a world of difference in their lives and turn them into loyal, high-paying clients.

But alas…there’s someone standing in your way…

This person is the one responsible for gathering all these ideal clients of yours in one spot. This person already has a great relationship with them and treats their time, money, and attention with the utmost respect. That, or they work for the person responsible.

In other words, this person is a gatekeeper, and you won’t be getting anywhere near those prospective clients until you find a way to deal with them.

Now when I say “deal with them” that can mean a few different things. I’ll dive into those different methods in a moment, but first let give you a quick reminder…

Gatekeepers are people too. Treat them with respect even if they aren’t 100% respectful to you. Trust me, there’s no point ever getting combative with them.

Do Business with Them…The Old-Fashioned Way

This is such a simple and obvious way to win over gatekeepers, but people always seem to forget this as an option.

Want to get a gatekeeper’s attention? Want to start the relationship off on the right foot so they’re more open to collaboration later on?

Then buy something from them! Become their client or customer!

One of the fundamental rules of business is to listen carefully to your clients…so if you become the gatekeeper’s client, you’ve got their attention (assuming they actually know how to run a

business).

Even if you don’t necessarily need what they’re selling, consider it an investment in the power of your network. Remember, a good affiliate can bring you a steady stream of high-qualified leads for years to come.

Also, you don’t even have to spend much money for this to work.

You know buskers, those people who play instruments, do magic, or dress up in costumes out on the street for spare change? Some of those people actually do go on to successful artistic careers.

The ones that DO go on to greater success usually follow the process I just described every time they enter a new neighborhood. They step into all the nearest shops and restaurants, introduce themselves, and buy a little something.

For them, every single one of those businesses is a potential gatekeeper because they could call in the cops to shoo the buskers away.

Instead, the smart buskers are proactive and add value first to the surrounding businesses. That way they establish trust and start generating positive buzz around their work.

Speaking of positive buzz…

Turn the Gatekeeper into YOUR Client!

This method is a little bit trickier, but it can lead to a huge payoff.

There’s nothing wrong with paid affiliate marketing, yet often the most powerful endorsements a business can ask for happen organically and for free.

HOWEVER, there’s only one way to make those spontaneous, free endorsements happen…you have to make the gatekeeper LOVE your service.

Now you and I know that you offer a great product or service, and normally I would recommend charging top dollar for it (because you deserve it). However, for gatekeepers it’s worth giving them either a steep discount or a price tag of $0.00.

Again, it’s all about investing in the future earning power of your network. If bringing on a gatekeeper for free brings in 3 or more converting leads, you’ve already made back your investment and then some!

And with a powerful gatekeeper celebrating your business, the rewards will only keep stacking from there.

Obviously, this strategy and the previous one won’t be possible with every gatekeeper. Still, think them over and see if they apply to you.

Content is Your (Gate) Key

In case you haven’t noticed, I talk about content marketing A LOT on this blog. If you aren’t putting out content already, start now. Seriously, your business can’t afford not to use content.

What you maybe didn’t know, however, is that you can also use content to win over gatekeepers. Heck, even if you don’t already have a steady stream of content over social media or an email newsletter, you can still create content to send out to gatekeepers.

The important part here is to make sure your content is interesting and useful to those gatekeepers. Is it something they could share with their audience? Is it something they  could implement and benefit from personally?

Remember, content marketing is all about building the Know, Like, and Trust factor. If you can build that up with gatekeepers, won’t that open up some opportunities for you?

Circle Around the Gatekeeper

All right, let’s say you’ve set your sights on the biggest, most influential gatekeeper in your industry. Good for you! Great hustle!

But then let’s say that gatekeeper is completely ignoring you. You’ve done everything you can think of to try to add value to their business, or even just get their attention, and nothing is working. What now?

First off, don’t give up on that person. Knowing the specific individuals you want to have in your network is a critical strategic practice, so keep that up.

Second, you want to look around that person to see what other opportunities might be available.

Maybe it’s just a question of reaching their same audience in a different place. Do their clients all have a different website or blog they like to visit? Do they all happen to hang out in similar coffee shops?

If you really need to connect with the gatekeeper personally, then look around at their own network and see who is less busy and more in need of help.

Maybe there’s a long-running sponsor of theirs that has never quite reached their same big-name status. Could be that there’s a personal connection there. Get in good with that sponsor and you’ll have a path to the gatekeeper.

Meet Them in Person

In-person meetings will always be the best way to build the Know, Like, and Trust factor.

Find ways to meet those gatekeepers in person. Trust me, it’s worth whatever travel you have to put in.

Keep in mind too that it’s often easier and most effective to meet them in casual, low-pressure environments. Can you find out their favorite store, restaurant, or bar? If so, that’s where you’ve got to show up again, and again, and again until you get that meeting.

Now get out there and hustle!

Committed to your success,

Bedros

The fact is, most small business owners approach pricing in completely the wrong way.

And to be honest, I don’t blame them. Pricing is one of those areas where business becomes both an art and a science, and it can take a lot of time to master.

Heck, did you know that there are entire books out there that JUST talk about pricing? That’s it! Entire books that just tell you how to set your prices.

If you’re the knowledge-hungry type, go ahead and look up those books. For the rest of you, I’m guessing you’d prefer a shortcut to smart pricing so you can learn the essentials and get on with growing your business.

And that’s exactly what I’m going to give you today!

I think the best way to approach this is myth vs. fact style, since for many of you the key to smart pricing will mean not just learning good habits but also breaking current bad habits.

In fact, I think you’ll be surprised by a lot of what you learn here…I know this stuff certainly surprised me when I was still learning it.

Myth: The Price That Creates the Most Sales is Correct

It’s easy to see why people get this wrong. After all, more sales means better business, right?

Maybe…but you have to keep in mind the bigger picture.

The problem with this type of thinking is that it leads many business owners to drive their prices down and keep them low.

In the short term, this does lead to more sales, since there are always bargain hunters out there ready to snatch up the “cheaper” option.

And yeah, it is technically possible to cruise along with this kind of business…but you’ll never build significant long-term wealth.

Plus, when the economy gets tough, these kinds of businesses are the first to close their doors.

Fact: The Price that Creates Stable Margins is Correct

Now THIS is strategic thinking, and this is where you start to get real, lasting wealth out of your business.

The correct price in your business will always be the price that results in healthy profit margins, so that you can enjoy the abundance you’ve earned and also keep investing back in the growth of your business.

The funny thing is, there’s actually a huge sliding scale here as far as what the correct price is for each business. It’s not a simple matter of always going low or always going high.

For example, most luxury businesses don’t have very high sales volume, because 99.9% of people can’t afford their prices. However, they survive and thrive by cultivating a small, loyal, extremely wealthy audience and selling them increasingly expensive goods.

On the extreme opposite end, you have companies like Walmart, who drive their prices as low as humanly possible but still turn a profit because they sell to a mind-bogglingly huge market.

In both those cases, the companies involved are ALWAYS investing significant money back into their businesses. Wealth comes from sustained and strategic growth, not just short-term profits.

Shopping at Walmart is cheap. Becoming Walmart is expensive. If you want to drive your prices further and further down, you have to plan on truly massive scale.

Myth: Pricing is a Financial Decision

Again, this problem comes from not seeing the big picture, and it manifests most clearly during sales presentations when newbie business owners try to argue down price objections.

The thing is, if your prospects are looking at your price as a financial decision, then you haven’t really done your job.

Because the truth is, money is the perfect excuse to back out of anything scary in life.

If someone is looking at a potentially life-changing opportunity, such as the chance to get in the best shape of their lives through personal training, they can back out and save face by pulling a cost objection. They can convince themselves that they’re being responsible and avoid the embarrassing truth: that they’re afraid and uncertain about what they want.

On the flip side, you don’t get to hike up your prices just because you want or need more revenue.

If you want to sell high, START by selling high. If you want to increase your prices later, demonstrate greater value to your clients and prospects so they’ll know you deserve higher prices.

Fact: Pricing is a Marketing Decision

When you put a price on something, you send a whole bunch of messages to whoever is paying attention.

The price you put on something, whether you mean to or not, sends all kinds of subconscious messages about what the product is worth, what the business is worth, and even what the client is worth.

In fact, this is why it’s possible to LOSE sales by setting your prices too low. Your prospects might look at your cheap prices and think, “I’m worth more than that! I’m going to go find the premium version of this.”

Again, the point of pricing is to create stable profit margins, not just short-term sales.

You want to research your market, choose the highest price they will respond to, and work on building a relationship with your client base so that they’ll want to continuously do business with you and recommend you to their friends.

And what do we call it when you’re building an audience and warming them for easy sales? That’s right, MARKETING!

Myth: It’s Okay to Cave On Random Discounts if it Gets More Clients

THIS IS THE DEADLIEST MISTAKE I SEE SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS MAKE!

They get clients and prospects who come to them and say, “Hey, I really like your business, and I want to sign up/keep working with you, but I don’t think I can afford your current prices. Can I get a discount?”

And then the owner CAVES! They give that person a discount!

Now some of you may say, “What’s the big deal? They got a new client and the client got a discount. Isn’t that win-win?”

No, it isn’t.

The kinds of clients who nickel and dime you for lower prices don’t make for good long-term clients. Paradoxically, they are the people who complain mostly loudly about minor issues, and they try to suck up the most of your time by looking for special treatment.

Worse, they create the perception in your community that you’re a pushover and you don’t really know what your business is worth. In the long run, they make it tougher for you to sell people on your real prices because everyone goes in thinking they’ll get a discount!

Fact: All Pricing Decisions, Including Discounts, should be Part of a Strategy

Some people may argue here that giving out random discounts to people who beg is no different from offering LBOs or from giving out special discounts to influencers.

It’s completely different. It all comes down to managing expectations and strategy.

LBOs have a very specific purpose: they are designed to give prospects a taste of your business and make them feel like they are a proper client already, so it will be a no-brainer when you offer them the chance to continue.

Plus, when you offer someone a discount upfront with the opportunity to continue at full price later, it projects confidence and generosity.

When you sell your full price first, THEN discount it later, it projects desperation.

As you might imagine, confidence and generosity are much more attractive and bring in more clients.

And of course, you can always give out discounts as a simple act of generosity…but make sure the person on the other end really deserves it, and don’t make a habit it out of it.

Finally, it makes plenty of sense to offer discounts to people who can add extra value to your business, such as community influencers or business affiliates. That’s just good strategy.

Myth: Price Erosion is an Outside Force that You Can’t Control

Completely wrong. In fact, I think the only time when price erosion can really hurt you is when you allow it to infect your business.

Sure, you can sit there and make excuses. You blame it on other businesses in your area lowering their prices, or on the economy, or on clients who don’t take your products/services seriously…

But at the end of the day, YOU are the only person who controls your prices, and when you set them too low, or don’t build enough value to justify them, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

Fact: When You Dominate Your Market, Your Prices Become Invincible

The truth is, the only way to get the high prices you want and need to run a thriving business is to become the go-to expert in your community.

In other words, DOMINATE YOUR MARKET!

Offer the best products or services, CONSTANTLY over-deliver on client expectations, and create a community of clients that you treat like the most special people on Earth.

The goal is not to make the market think your prices are “fair.” The goal is to make the market embarrassed for not paying you more, since you’re already giving them such incredible value.

Because when you really are the best at what you do in your community, your client base isn’t going to consider you an optional item in their budget. In the toughest economic times, they’re going to look over their budget and find ways to trim everything BUT you.

Committed to your success,

Bedros

I’m going to give you some killer marketing advice today SO THAT you can dominate your market and get more loyal clients than you’ve ever had before.

See what I did there? You will in a second.

A few months back I learned the “so that” trick at one of my live events (that’s right, I learn just as much as my attendees do at my events) and I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

It’s a really brilliant trick, and I want to show you why.

See, I’ve told you over and over again that your job is to sell BENEFITS instead of features…but that doesn’t mean that features aren’t important.

Because really, the mistake of selling features is a common mistake for all first-time salespeople across all industries. And there’s a totally innocent reason for it.

If you truly love your industry and your service or product (WHICH YOU MUST) then you are probably obsessed with your features.

Dare I say you even nerd out about them? Maybe just a little bit?

And in some ways that’s a good thing. All great sales and marketing begins with enthusiasm, so you can use your enthusiasm for features as a starting point.

However…

The Magic of SO THAT

The magic of the “so that” trick is that it creates a link between you and your client so that you can fill them up with your enthusiasm, turn it into THEIR enthusiasm, and have them DEMAND your services.

How?

I’ll explain with a simple formula:

[Your Feature] + SO THAT + [Their Benefit] = Successful Sale

Wherever you are in the sales process, you should use this formula. It will work for sales copy, sales presentations, even just casual chats with strangers at the coffee shop.

It works because it gives you a chance to display your enthusiasm for the feature, while linking that to something the client can get enthusiastic about – the benefit.

Because the truth is, your clients are never going to see those features the way you do. They don’t have your specialized knowledge and experience. But if you can show them a clear benefit of each feature, they will absolutely get excited about that.

Now the truly amazing part of the “so that” trick is that, once you get good at it, you can keep chaining together more and more benefits SO THAT you can be more persuasive SO THAT you can close more clients SO THAT you can earn more freedom and abundance SO THAT you can build a long, happy life for you and your family!

See what I did there?

Putting SO THAT Into Action

I want you to start thinking about ways to use the SO THAT trick in your own work…

Start writing down your ideas, and start keeping an eye out for this trick in other people’s sales copy (I promise you I’m not the only guy using this).

And keep in mind that this trick works in pretty much any industry.

Here, I’ll give you some examples to prove it to you (none of these are direct quotes, but you can find similar things out there).

Automotive:
“This car comes with an A/C system that will activate before you even open the door, SO THAT you can step into a cool, comfortable ride every time!”

Fashion:
“This jacket has a nice, subtle earth tone to it SO THAT it will fit perfectly with any pair of pants you own!”

Finance:
“I’ll walk you through this free risk appetite test SO THAT we can give you an investment plan tailor-made to keep you feeling confident and happy about your future!”

Hunting:
“This rifle comes with a powerful, adjustable scope SO THAT you can line up the perfect shot every single time!”

Real Estate:
“This kitchen window opens directly into the backyard barbecue SO THAT you can keep the party going indoors and outdoors at the same time!”

Now go try it out yourself: list out your 10 favorite features for your product or service and come up with a SO THAT for each one of them.

Then, take each of those sleek new sentences and figure out where you can plug them into your sales copy SO THAT you can increase your sales!

DO IT!

Committed to your success,

Bedros

I’m a big believer in the “inner game.”

The thoughts that occupy your mind and the people that you surround yourself with are responsible for 99% of your actions, emotions and outcome.

The brutally honest truth is that many people blame outside circumstances for their outcome when, in reality, where you are in life right now is a direct cause of your thoughts and actions.

And I want to be absolutely clear about something here: whenever I hop on this blog and start talking about mindset, success, motivation, leadership, or any of these other “big picture” topics, I’m giving you information that applies directly to your life and your business.

If you ever study the greatest leaders and most successful people in world history, you’ll find that THE RULES OF MASTERY AND GREATNESS DO NOT CHANGE. These rules are exactly the same across all cultures, all industries, and all personal circumstances.

The short version of the rules go like this: be honest, work hard, make bold decisions, and take care of the people close to you.

And of course, the people close to you includes YOURSELF! See, personal motivation really is a type of self-care. If you blew out your knee, you would immediately rush to a hospital and get that fixed, right? Heck, even if you just had chronic knee pain, you’d look for a way to fix that.

So why would you ever settle for a mindset that isn’t working? If it’s broke, fix it! All it takes is a little bit of thinking about thinking and the firm decision to make a positive change in your life.

If you’re in a good place right now then I congratulate you on your self-mastery.

And if you’re not in a good place then you have some work to do and I’m here to help see you though it.

Drop The Excuses

You know this to be true about your clients who claim to follow the program you’ve given them and say that they religiously carry out your instructions, yet they fail to achieve their goals. They blame your program, their busy life or some sort of outside circumstance.

The reality is it’s not your program that’s at fault or any outside circumstance out of their control.

See, most people say they want a better life, greater fat loss, a higher level of fitness, more meaningful relationships, bigger success, financial freedom, and happiness…

…Yet their actions prove the opposite.

Maybe this is something you or someone who you know is struggling with.

I’ve got to tell you, it’s a very tough thing to admit that you are the cause of your current situation and outcome and that no one else is at fault but you.

However, there’s something massively empowering about that because anything that you take responsibility for, you can also turn around and improve upon.

Now you might be wondering: what is the root cause of this problem? Why do people keeping wanting one thing, getting something else, and then blaming other people for the outcome?

The culprit here is something that’s called “inner emotional resistance.”

It’s the anchor that most people carry with them their entire lives. This inner emotional resistance comes in the form of guilt, self-hatred, anger, shame, fear, scarcity, greed, and outright laziness. It may have been installed in you when you were young and impressionable. But you have total control over it now.

Inner emotional resistance creates a state in your mind that makes you believe that you have zero control over your outcome.

In reality, you are in direct control of your outcome. And every action that you’ve taken up to this point has brought you to where you are today in life.

There’s nothing more empowering than taking personal responsibility for where you are right now in life. Because in the very next moment you also realize that you are the master of your destiny.

You Are the Cause And Not the Effect.

You have more control than you’ve ever given yourself credit for.

You decide what time you wake up every morning to dominate your day.

You decide if you will hit snooze and choose extra 10 minutes of sleep instead of living your passion and purpose.

(Just think of the message that’s sending to your subconscious mind when you hit snooze on your passion!)

You decide if you’re going to waste valuable time first thing in the morning by checking in on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and scrolling through your emails.

You decide if you’re going to spend the first 15 minutes working on your inner game by reading from a book or listening to an audio program that will help you emotionally, physically, spiritually, or in business.

You decide if you’re going to work out today or make an excuse to skip it.

You decide what you eat, when you eat, and how much you eat.

You’re 100% in charge of the actions you take, the decisions you make, the commitment you show, and the promises you make or break.

Friends, there is nothing more liberating or more empowering than to know that you and only you are 100% in charge of your outcome.

The buck starts and stops with you. And the only thing that is in between you and the incredible outcome that you want for your life is the inner emotional belief system that you carry…and that you must change in order to move forward.

And that dovetails perfectly with the morning text message that I received from ‘ol Craig Ballantyne this morning.

Here it is…

“The failure to act is often the product of inner, emotional resistance than external resistance. To move forward you must give up your excuses. Do not capitulate to external resistance, AND resolve your own internal resistance. A high performer has no margin for such weakness.” – Dan Kennedy.

I believe in YOU! Take Charge!

Bedros

What do you think of when you hear the word “education”?

Odds are, if you’re like most ambitious professionals, you immediately think “certifications.”

Now don’t get me wrong: certifications are important, and in a moment I’ll talk more about how to choose the correct one.

Still, I want you to understand that education includes quite a lot more than just certifications. It includes the books you read, the methods you test out yourself, and even your social circle.

In fact, I’m even tempted to say that education is an entire lifestyle – it’s an ongoing process of staying curious and always looking for ways to improve yourself and your business.

So let’s talk about your education. I want to make sure you’re getting the right education so you can reach the greatest possible success in your business.

Getting the Right Certification

…is actually incredibly simple.

In fact, the only real tip I have for choosing certifications is this:

Seek knowledge, not status.

Let me break that down for you: you’ve probably seen or heard about tons of different certification programs that sound really flashy and important. You’ve probably debated how much extra money you should throw down for a “prestigious” or “celebrity” program, or even worried that the program you’ve already picked is “not cool enough.”

Go ahead and set all that worry aside, because I can promise you that most certifications will have about the same effect on your career: they’ll give you some better knowledge for how to do your work and build your business, but they will not directly affect your income.

So, if you ever genuinely feel like you don’t have enough knowledge to deliver great work, then go ahead and look into a certification. Pick any one of them that covers your areas of interest and doesn’t seem too sketchy. That’s what they are there for.

Just remember that your present and future clients care ONLY about the results you can give them.

Sure, flashing a certification logo might reassure the occasional prospect who pays attention to detail, but the grand majority of people will judge you only by your testimonials, your referrals, and their personal experience with your work. That’s it.

By the way, this also means that you don’t need a huge long list of certifications. Heck, if you supplement it with your own research and learn by doing, you can probably get away with just one.

Books!

If I seem lukewarm about certifications, it’s only because I’m way more enthusiastic about books. I know my own career really took off when I started seriously absorbing books. Paper books, audio books, PDFs – I’ll take books in any form I can find them.

I spend at least an hour every day reading, and I hope you are doing the same thing.

Granted, I do make sure that I’m reading useful books…but the funny thing is, “useful” can include a lot of different things over the course of your career.

I’ve actually done quite a lot of reading on human psychology and storytelling to round out my marketing skills. Ever heard of a book called The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell?

Maybe not…but that one is practically a holy book for scholars and artists all around the world. It talks about how all the different mythologies on planet Earth are telling the same basic story, because they’re all trying to address the same set of primal human needs.

It’s a fascinating read, but more importantly it has helped me get a real sense of the stories people WANT to hear, which gives me enormous leverage as a marketer.

Now just to be clear: I’m not saying you should lose your focus here. I’m saying you should keep an open mind. It’s totally possible to have both.

I’ll explain a bit more later about how to choose your books, but first…

Execute, Execute, Execute

Your education is only as good as what you put into practice.

You don’t want to become one of those people whose heads are full of useless knowledge…AKA people who do not USE the knowledge they have!

Because at the end of the day, life is dynamic. The advice you get from your education might be outdated, or wrong, or not applicable to your situation.

But the only way – THE ABSOLUTE ONLY WAY – you can sort the good advice from the bad advice is to put all of it into action as fast as humanly possible. That way you’ll figure out for certain what works and what doesn’t.

Sitting on your hands and daydreaming about what might or might not work is a terrible waste of time. Execute. Execute fast. Get your failures out of the way sooner so you can get to your successes and still have time to enjoy them.

And this is especially true for those of you special snowflakes who think your business is “different” and think that the advice of experts doesn’t apply to you. Oh yeah, you know who you are.

Think “gurus” like me are full of hot air? Think you’re so special and smart that you’re going to revolutionize the fitness industry without any help from anyone? Awesome. Put my advice into action and prove me wrong.

Although you might be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Your Social Circle

The people you surround yourself with are a crucial part of your education.

I’m including mentors in this section because I think the word “mentor” implies a lot more than just a teacher or an expert. A mentor is someone who knows you and your business on a deep personal level and can inject the exact advice you need at the exact moment you need it.

A good mentor is tough to find…but when you find one, they are worth every penny (and every second of your time).

Still, your friends and peers are crucially important too. They’re important because they naturally help shape your daily habits and your personality. Yet, they can also be your greatest sources of information.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve discovered a mind-blowing new technique to grow my business just by chatting at lunch with my buddies. Of course, these moments are only possible because I make sure to hang out with the best and brightest in my industry, like Craig Ballantyne.

What to Study

All right, let’s dive into the one big question we’ve been building towards this whole time:

“How do I know what knowledge I need first?”

The answer: whatever knowledge will allow you to give your clients a better experience.

Your goal, if you want to create a massively successful, scalable business, is to ALWAYS be delivering your clients a great experience – and always be improving that experience to stay ahead of their expectations.

So whenever you stop to plan out your education, whether you’re looking through certification options, book shopping, or considering which mentor to get in touch with, make sure you are always working backward from the client’s experience.

Committed to your success,

Bedros

I want to teach you the one thing that everyone says is unteachable: leadership.

You know me: I’m stubborn. I like to shake things up. I like to break down stereotypes.

Well, one of the biggest, oldest, and most dangerous stereotypes out there is the idea that leaders are a different species from the rest of us. That they’ve been magically gifted something that the rest of us don’t have.

There’s also the stereotype that a leader is someone with a fancy title…the idea that anyone who is an “authority figure” is automatically a leader.

These are both lies, and I plan to shatter both of them by giving you the correct definition of leadership.

First off, we have to remember that the word “leadership” comes from a verb: to lead. Leadership is an ACTION. Leadership is a CHOICE. Each and every one of us can be leaders IF WE CHOOSE TO BE.

In other words, the path to becoming a true leader is not really about who you are, it’s about what you do.

Leadership is when you charge toward your true purpose and inspire others to help you through discipline, focus, and generosity.

Now odds are, if you’re reading this post you are a highly motivated professional, a business owner, or an entrepreneur. That means leadership is absolutely critical to your success. And to make sure you’re really prepared for leadership, I’m going to break it down piece by piece for you and explain.

Your True Purpose

This part comes first because it’s the most important. If you don’t start with this, your discipline, focus, and generosity won’t amount to anything.

Your true purpose is your vision for how you want to change the world. It’s the thing you care about more than anything else at a gut level. For many people, it’s something they feel first and only find the words for later.

The good news is that you don’t have to have a perfect definition of your true purpose right from the start. To be honest, it can take many years to find the exact words for it. I know it took me quite a while personally.

The OTHER good news (although maybe slightly scarier news) is that you should start to shape your true purpose by taking action NOW. If you haven’t already, start working exclusively on projects that tug at your heart, the things you care about on a gut level.

That sounds so simple when I put it down in words…but I’m constantly surprised by how many people don’t follow this advice. I understand why though: the world is full of bad advice peddled by mediocre people. If you aren’t careful, they’ll turn you into one of them.

However, there is always a way to rise above the sea of mediocrity…

If you aren’t sure about your true purpose, or you suspect you may be following the wrong purpose, here is what you need to do:

Take some time, even if it’s just an hour, to sit alone with yourself and ask, “What do I really want for myself and for the world?”

Now for this to work, you have to be 100%, completely honest with yourself. Don’t worry about what’s realistic, don’t worry about what other people will think, just be honest.

Because the truth is, your true purpose doesn’t have to be realistic. Realism will come later. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be popular, because you’re going to use the tools of leadership to prove all the doubters wrong.

Your true purpose just has to be genuine.

To give you an example, I started my fitness franchise Fit Body Boot Camp with a very clear true purpose. We call it the 2020 Vision – our goal to get 20% of the world in healthy shape by the 2020.

Is that a realistic goal? I don’t know. 20% of the population right now is about 1.5 billion people. In 2020 that number will be slightly higher.

However, I didn’t choose those numbers because they’re realistic. I chose them because I dream of a healthier world with every fiber of my being. And as long as I have that and I keep behaving like a true leader, the 2020 Vision will come true.

And true purpose leads me to another important idea for today…

The culture of any team or organization always begins at the top.

This means that whatever your vision is, your team will never care about it as much as you do. With time and careful decision making, you can get a team who cares 95% as much as you, but that’s the maximum.

That’s why YOU need to be a diehard believer in your own vision. Nobody else is going to do it for you.

Discipline

This one is fairly simple. If you want to be a true leader, you need to work hard and work with discipline.

That means you need to master time management. Be conscious and deliberate about how you spend every hour of your day, even your “off” hours.

Script out every day the night before, placing your most important and scariest tasks at the top your to-do list so you make sure you get those done.

Whatever your vision is, you as a leader need to dive deep into the 5% of tasks that will do the most to drive that vision forward.

I, for example, am an entrepreneur and a business coach. I build businesses and help others do the same. Therefore, I spend the vast majority of my time selling and marketing, talking over phone and email with my coaching clients, and reading/listening to/talking with my own mentors to make sure my knowledge stays cutting edge.

If you’re an entrepreneur, you should be doing exactly the same. If you’re something else, you should find the most successful people in your field and study them obsessively to figure out how they operate on a daily basis. Then copy them.

And remember, culture starts at the top. If you want a team of disciplined people working for you, you need to start by demonstrating discipline yourself.

Focus

This one is sort of related to the previous point. A great leader DOES take responsibility for everything that happens in their business or organization…but they do not micromanage. That just takes away time from their critical 5%.

Like discipline, the best way to spread focus in your organization is to demonstrate it at the top. As long you clearly state and restate your true purpose, and you take actions that serve your true purpose, then your organization will naturally build a sense of focus just like you have.

Now when it comes to getting focused people on your team, there’s a bit of a twist here. Because really, the best employees in the world are actually mini-leaders. In fact, I often tell my own team that I don’t want a bunch of “employees” working for me – I want a team of entrepreneurs.

Because here’s the thing about my 5% rule…even though you as a leader should only work on your 5%, the other 95% still needs to get done for you to succeed. And for you to reach truly massive success, that 95% needs to be done well.

And to get the 95% done well, you need to hire people who consider those tasks part of their personal 5%.

Hire copywriters who are obsessed with words. Hire accountants who are obsessed with numbers. Hire HR people who are obsessed with nurturing. You might see those 95% tasks as pure drudgery…but someone out there leaps out of bed every morning excited to do those exact things. So find them and let them take care of it.

By the way, those obsessive self-starters might not be the most qualified or skilled people knocking on your doors when you start hiring. Choose them anyway.

Sure, a qualified, highly skilled self-starter will always be the holy grail…but those people are rare, and they get snatched up quick. So when push comes to shove, always hire for passion. Those people will learn faster and turn out better work than someone who looks good on paper but doesn’t have their heart in the game.

In fact, the best way to build a team of superstars is to grab passionate talent while they’re young (career-wise, at least) and let them grow within your organization. That way, you’ll get an intensely loyal team who knows exactly what you need and want from them.

Which leads me nicely to my final point…

Generosity

This is a really big one.

Let me remind you for the final time that CULTURE STARTS AT THE TOP! If you want an organization full of generous, dependable people who have a habit of giving first and asking later, guess what? You need to set that example first.

Now I hope I don’t need to remind you to be generous to your clients/customers…however, I’m about to give you a business insight that a shocking number of people miss out on.

If you want to build a truly successful business, you need to treat your employees with even more generosity than you treat your clients/customers.

Does that sound crazy? Trust me, it works.

I’ve been putting this idea into practice for years now and even though I’ve had a few people take it for granted, the vast majority of my team appreciates it. And I’m proud to say that they deserve it. I’ve got my team of superstars, and they’re happy to keep doing amazing work for me well into the future.

So be a go-giver. Demonstrate the value of generosity with your own actions, and one day you’ll turn around and find a team of wonderful people supporting you.

Committed to your success,

Bedros

If you have made it to this page, you are a creative professional.

Does that sound weird? Are you used to thinking of “creative professionals” as designers, writers, architects, etc.?

Well the truth is that you are just as creative as any of those guys…

IF, of course, you’re doing your job right.

I’m always telling you that your top duties as an entrepreneur are marketing, selling, and leadership. Well, if you want to excel in all three of those areas then you need a lot of creativity.

And again, I want to really be clear about what I mean when I say “creative.” See, there are a lot stereotypes surrounding the idea of creativity. A lot of people want you to believe that anyone who is creative is automatically an artist, and that you can’t be creative if you’re not an artist.

This is a lie. I’ll give you the true definition of creativity right here:

Creativity is finding elegant solutions to serious problems. Creativity is finding connections between things that don’t seem related. Creativity is taking the boring and difficult parts of life and making them fun and easy.

Now with that definition, think about all the people who have found massive success in the worlds of business. And I don’t mean the people who lucked out and accidentally landed in positions of power, I mean the true entrepreneurs who built something amazing using their own vision and leadership.

See how these people made a habit of solving problems? See how they were able to combine things that nobody else thought to combine? See how they turned “boring and difficult” into “fun and easy”?

Here, let me show you an example. (If you want to just skip right to my tips, scroll down until you see a picture of a window.)

The Insult

Obviously, this example hits close to home for me as a lifelong fitness professional, but the image I’m about to show you will probably look familiar to anyone who as a set of eyeballs. It’s just that iconic.

Ah, yes, “The Insult That Made a Man Out of ‘Mac’.” Even if you don’t recognize this exact image, you probably have seen one of the dozens of parodies that have turned up over the years. It’s a legendary piece of marketing, and it’s become thoroughly stuck in our cultural memory.

Now, to really understand why this image is important I’ll need to break down the history surrounding it.

The ad, of course, was created by Charles Atlas. He was a marketer, bodybuilder, and public figure who had his heyday in the 1920s. He was also a fine example of the Immigrant Edge, by the way, since he originally came from Italy.

Obviously, bodybuilding had existed in one form or another for centuries before Atlas came along. However, it had always been a niche culture. For example, “musclemen” lifting huge weights were popular in the 1800s, but they were usually included alongside the freak show. Audiences were fascinated, but they didn’t daydream about looking like musclemen themselves.

Charles Atlas changed that completely. In fact, a lot of experts credit him as the grandfather of the modern bodybuilding industry. Why?

Because his ads created an EXPLOSION of interest in personal fitness. What was once a niche rapidly became a booming industry, with thousands of newcomers clamoring to snatch up every piece of workout advice Atlas could sell them.

Even athletes, who had mostly stuck to their own world and their own specialized training, started showing up to bodybuilding competitions.

Now here’s the funny thing…a lot of people look at Charles Atlas ads now and say that they’re “cheesy” or that they are “painfully obvious.”

And that leads me to an important insight about creativity: truly groundbreaking creativity only looks “obvious” after the fact. Until someone puts in the hard work, careful thought, and leadership to create something important, the next great innovation is a total mystery.

It’s easy for us to look back on Charles Atlas now and see his work as an “obvious success.” But that’s only because we weren’t there for the many painstaking hours he and his team put into researching people’s problems, building those into a compelling story, and drawing those eye-catching comics.

So if you’re already daydreaming about Charles Atlas levels of success, then start thinking like he did: look for problems to solve, try combining existing solutions, and make your work FUN for you and others.

In other words, GET CREATIVE! These tips will help you get started:

Tip #1 – Work in Front of a Window

This may not seem like a big deal to you right now, but try split testing it. Spend one day working in front of a wall and another day working in front of a big, clear window.

What you should notice, according to research (not to mention my personal experience), is that you work faster, think more clearly, and come up with better ideas in front of the window.

Weird, isn’t it?

It has to do with psychological framing. When you have a window in front of you, you can see the open sky. That means you’re getting a ton of the color blue (which is a very creative color) AND you are constantly visualizing a wide open space.

Visualizing an open space gives your mind room to have BIG thoughts and explore many different possibilities, which is exactly what you need for creative thinking.

Now obviously, you don’t need to spend every second of your day in front of a window. That would be silly. But do keep the window trick in mind for when you get writer’s block on your sales copy, or you just can’t quite picture how you want your logo to look. The window might give you the extra space you need to get the idea stream flowing again.

And of course, if you can’t find a window to work with, you can substitute it for a large, well-lit room with blue walls. Same effect.

Tip #2 – Keep a Regular Sleep Schedule

People get so weird about sleep. I see so many ambitious people trying to get by with 4-6 hours of sleep per night. That’s silly enough to begin with, but then they try to wear it as a badge of honor and say “Look at how hard I’m working! I barely ever sleep!”

Guess what? If you spend all your extra waking hours doing sloppy work, you aren’t productive. In fact, odds are you’re way less productive than the people who sleep reasonably.

Because here’s the tricky thing about sleep deprivation: the first things it takes away from you are the exact things you MUST HAVE to do great creative work. These include patience, focus, a stable mood, and alertness.

So get your sleep. 7 hours is good; 8 hours is better. Every night, preferably at the same time (this helps you get a better rest and have more energy during the day).

Tip #3 – Write Out Your Bad Ideas

This is good for when you’re really stumped on a particular problem.

How often have you found yourself grasping for a solution to a problem in your life, and you’re sitting there fidgeting because your head is swarming with obviously wrong answers and you’re just waiting for the right answer to rise to the top?

Happens pretty often, doesn’t it?

When that happens, just write out or doodle all the wrong answers until you’ve listed them all. Seriously, take a second to not care about being right and jot down EVERYTHING.

This exercise will almost literally clear the bad ideas out of your head and make room for good ones. Or, you might notice unexpected connections between bad ideas that actually morph them into good ideas.

Tip #4 – Get Curious About Art

Part of your job as an entrepreneur is to know a little bit about everything.

So while you’re at it, why not learn a little about the arts?

Sure, your top priorities in your reading time should always be business, sales, and leadership, but make some room for the artistic classics too. Literature, poetry (a favorite of Tom Hopkins, by the way), paintings, sculpture, music – take your pick.

I say “classic” because you don’t want to waste your time on mediocre art. There’s not a lot for you to learn there. The classics are usually a safe bet, but really, any piece of art that jumps out at you and sticks in your memory is worth a closer look.

All artists are, on a really deep level, problem solvers. Just like you. If you take a close look at their process, it’s really a series of careful decisions that all center around the basic problem of “How can I make this thing say what I’m trying to say?”

So keep an eye out for hints about the way great artists think. There’s a lot for you to learn there.

Tip #5 – Rest Actively

Some of our best ideas come to us while at rest. Esteemed geniuses in business, the arts, and the sciences will often admit that their best ideas came to them in the shower.

Of course, the kind of rest matters quite a bit…

If you really want to open your mind to new ideas, steer towards “active” forms of rest.

This can include thrilling activities like surfing, which I know from experience creates a helpful blast of dopamine and lets me release a lot of muscle tension.

This can also include slow, repetitive movements like nature walks, meditation, or yoga.

The point is to hit that sweet spot where you have just enough activity to keep your brain going, but not enough activity to keep it distracted. That’s when the best ideas, and the best connections between ideas, really have room to grow.

There you go! Now go out there and get creative!

Committed to your success,

Bedros