The Most Stupid Vice

Economists Sara Solnick and David Hemenway recently conducted a survey where they asked participants if they would rather earn $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000, or earn $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000?

Sit down for this one. The majority of people selected the first option. They would rather make twice as much as others even if that meant earning half as much as they could have.

This is completely nuts, of course. Yet other findings in the study confirmed the envious nature of contemporary culture. People said, for instance, they would rather be average-looking in a community where no one is considered attractive than merely good-looking in the company of stunners.

When it came to education, parents said they would rather have an average child in a crowd of dunces than a smart child in a class full of brilliant students.

What is going on here? In his new book " The Mind of the Market," Scientific American columnist Michael Shermer writes that, "Our sense of happiness tends to be based on positional and relative rankings compared to what others have."

There's one problem, however. It doesn't work.

As the philosopher Bertrand Russell pointed out, "Envy consists in seeing things never in themselves, but only in their relations. If you desire glory, you may envy Napoleon, but Napoleon envied Caesar, Caesar envied Alexander, and Alexander, I daresay, envied Hercules, who never existed."

Of all the dissatisfactions we face, surely none is more menial than envy. It denies us contentment, is a waste of time, and is an insult to ourselves. Worst of all, it's completely self-imposed.

"Envy is the most stupid of vices," wrote the novelist Honore de Balzac, "for there is no single advantage to be gained from it."

Face it. We all know people who are smarter, fitter, richer, funnier, more talented or better looking. But so what?

Thinking this way only keeps you from appreciating your own uniqueness and self worth, things that, not incidentally, do lead to greater happiness. Especially when combined with a strong sense of purpose.

As Shermer writes, "Feeling ennobled is a pleasurable emotion that arises out of this deepest sense of purpose. Although there are countless activities people engage in to satisfy this deep-seated need, the research shows that there are four means by which we can bootstrap ourselves toward happiness through purposeful action." These include:

1. Deep love and family commitment.

2. Meaningful work and career.

3. Social and political involvement.

4. Transcendency and spirituality.

Note that psychologists have yet to discover the route to happiness by comparing ourselves to others. (Although it never hurts to measure yourself against your own ideals.)

Concentrating on your own fortunes - and improving those of others - is guaranteed to generate more satisfaction than sizing up the Joneses. Besides, if you knew everything the other guy is dealing with, you might prefer your own circumstances anyway. (Remember Richard Cory?)

In other words, don't begrudge the other guy his blessings. Count your own, instead. As Mark Twain said, "Pity is for the living, envy is for the dead."

The Problem With Internet Entreprenuers

I recently got an e-mail from a man I'll call Jim, a longtime ETR reader. His question is probably the most common question I get. If you are interested in breaking into the Internet, pay attention. What I have to say to Jim might give you the information you need to get started.

Jim writes:

"I have been struggling with the idea of starting my own Internet-based business. The question is, how and with what product or service?

"I have been a loyal fan of ETR for many years now, and you guys throw so many sound ideas and businesses at me it gets a little confusing. I would like to start small with some proven methods and techniques and build from there. I do not have countless thousands of dollars to experiment with, nor do I have the luxury of being able to sit in front of my computer day in and day out. I need your help to get me started in the right direction with a system that will hopefully start generating some return fairly quickly.

"I believe in and trust your advice more so than anyone out there when it comes to building an Internet-based business - or any other type of business, for that matter. Please help me make this the year I finally took the plunge and started achieving success!"

Everybody knows what a great opportunity the Internet offers. It is the only medium where someone without a lot of money can start a multimillion-dollar company. There are lots of good programs available that teach the ins and outs of Internet marketing. But choosing the right product or service to market... there's the rub!

I'm going to give Jim some general advice. And then MaryEllen Tribby (ETR's publisher and CEO) and Patrick Coffey (ETR's Director of Internet Marketing) will jump in with some specific suggestions.

Which product to choose is a big question. Not the kind that can be answered simply and quickly. It depends so much on you - who you are, who you want to be, what you know, what you don't know, etc.

That said, a few general suggestions apply.

First, and most important, it is always best to start a business in or around an industry/area that you understand. So many of the most expensive mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make are "outsider" mistakes - errors that someone with experience in the field would not have made.

Lots of first-time health publishers, for example, spend too much time explaining the disease or health problem they hope to cure. They do so both in the publications they create and the promotions they use to sell those publications. What these novices don't understand is that the most active health buyers don't need to know more about their problems. They can find out all they want to know on the Internet - for free. What they need are solutions.

So the first thing you must do is make a list of all the things you know about. Start with the business you are in (or employed by). But don't stop there. Include all your hobbies and interests too. You don't have to have any professional experience to know enough about a subject to start a business based on it.

I have a friend who started a successful business providing advice about astrology. She'd never taken a course in it or received certification. But she'd read about it for 30 years, and her knowledge was deep and wide. Because of that, she began her enterprise with a good idea of what kind of astrology she would practice and what kind of products and pricing would work.

Another friend started a successful Internet business selling martial arts information. He was a world-class black belt who had been competing for 20 years. He knew the industry inside and out. So he had some good ideas about new and exciting instructional videos he could produce that really caught fire.

This brings us to my second-most-important suggestion: If you are not an expert at direct marketing, you should become one before you spend a nickel on your new business.

I cannot overstate the importance of understanding the techniques of direct-response marketing. Direct marketing is the primary method for generating profits on the Internet. Other forms of advertising - from public relations to event marketing to social media and branding - are usually not nearly as effective.

Luckily, there are plenty of good information products and educational programs available that teach direct marketing for the Internet. On top of the list, I'd put ETR's own Internet Money Club, The Magic Button, and Instant Internet Income. But I'd also recommend Bob Bly's Internet Marketing Retirement Plan.

My third and final suggestion is this: In addition to focusing on an industry you are already familiar with and becoming an expert at direct marketing, you must learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Starting a business can be a daunting task for the beginner. Most of those who try fail. And with good reason: They make some very basic mistakes.

The biggest mistake first-time entrepreneurs make is spending too much of their time and money on all sorts of secondary business concerns (getting business cards, setting up a website, finding a business location). But when you're starting any new business, your priority has to be on making sales. In fact, at this stage of the game, at least 80 percent of your time should be devoted to selling.

To bring yourself up to speed, I recommend that you read Ready, Fire, Aim: Zero to $100 Million in No Time Flat. The book is based on my own experiences with building small businesses. It's all about how to get your business off the ground and continue to grow it.

Okay. Those are my general suggestions. Now, here's some specific advice from MaryEllen and Patrick:

• To develop your marketing materials, hire a copywriter who has in-depth and up-to-date knowledge of your niche. They should be on the cutting-edge of their specialty and always learning, whether it's the financial markets or alternative health. "I never hire a copywriter who says they can write about anything," says MaryEllen.

• Do some quick research, then TEST your idea. Says Patrick, "One of the biggest problems I see is that people will take too much time analyzing what market to get into. I'll talk to people who have been studying one of our programs for months and they'll say, 'I'm still in the market research stage.' In my opinion, market research for a new online business should take no more than a week."

A week is plenty of time to decide what to sell. In fact, it's a generous amount of time. At ETR's annual 5 Days In July Internet Marketing Conference, attendees have to make this decision in a day.

To figure out what market to enter, you need to look for two things:

1. Are people looking for this information?

2. Are people buying this information?

"And," says Patrick, "you can get the answers to these questions very quickly with a few key strokes.

"One of the best ways to find out who is looking for what is with a free tool like WordTracker. And to determine if people are buying, simply enter a few search phrases for your product in Google. Then check the Web pages of the advertisers that come up. The fact that they're paying for advertising and selling stuff is a good indicator that the market they're selling to is buying.

"Sign up for e-mail lists of potential competitors, study their marketing materials, and even purchase some of their products. After that, you immediately begin working on your own offer so you can start testing. That's what students of our Internet marketing programs who become most successful do."

Will all the ideas you'll come up with work? No. But the only way you'll find out is by trying to sell to the market. If an idea does not work, simply try to re-work the offer or explore a new idea.

• Remember that starting an Internet business - just like beginning any worthwhile venture - will take work. In his e-mail, Jim talked about wanting to generate some return "fairly quickly," despite the fact that he does not "have the luxury of being able to sit in front of [his] computer day in and day out." You need to have realistic expectations when you begin a new business. And one thing you must be prepared for is that it takes time and energy.

One last piece of advice from Charlie Byrne, ETR's Editorial and Creative Director: Get started. Now. By no means is this all you need to know about starting an Internet business. But the best way to get it going is to begin. Ready, Fire, Aim. You can take time to adjust your product or marketing later. What's most important is taking that initial leap.

The Best Way To Enter A New Market

When I was in college, I was desperate to find a way to make some money. And I wasn't crazy about the idea of working at the usual part-time, minimum-wage jobs available to students. So I came up with a business plan and put it into action. One hot summer day found me trudging from door to door, passing out flyers and praying that I would get some customers from the effort.

By the time I returned home, I'd received my first inquiries. And those quickly resulted in my first customers. Within a week, I had a business that was earning more money than I needed. Within a year, that business earned over $100,000 in profits. Not bad for a college kid living at home with his mom!

That first successful start-up was a pool service. Since then, I've launched more than a dozen very profitable small businesses. When I analyze what made those businesses successful, I can pinpoint several reasons. But my pool service was successful because of one business strategy: price.

I got people's attention by offering a monthly rate that was 20 percent lower than the competition. On top of that, I had an introductory "special."

Michael Masterson says that underpricing the competition may be "the most important secret a businessman can know, for it is the most powerful and most reliable way to make a small business grow." It's also one of the best ways to enter a market and grab a share of the customer base.

When it comes to consumer merchandising, a small business can't compete with giants like Wal-Mart. But a new service business can usually offer a better price than larger established companies providing the same service. That's primarily because a small start-up can keep overhead low and sometimes accept a smaller profit margin. So if you can operate your small service business out of your back bedroom, without hiring a lot of employees or needing a lot of fancy equipment, you can almost certainly afford to underprice the competition.

But just because you enter the market with the lowest price in town doesn't mean you stay there forever. For example, one of my entrepreneurial ventures later in my career was a ballroom dance instruction business. When I entered the market, I was a one-man operation, and I offered lessons at $29 when most studios charged $60. Sure, I made less money per lesson, but it was still pretty good money for me at the time. And once I had a nice little client base, I gradually inched up to the going market rate. That allowed me to hire other instructors to teach the lessons... and freed up my time to develop additional sources of income.

I already had considerable experience as a ballroom dancer - and teacher - before I decided to go into business for myself. But with the pool service business, the only "skill" I needed was the willingness to do the work. So let's go back to that example so I can show you how well the underpricing strategy works.

Here in South Florida, where I live, the average monthly rate for pool service is about $65. In this particular industry, an account is generally worth six times the monthly gross. So an average pool account would be worth $390.

But let's say you decided to get into the business by undercutting the competition by $15 a month. That means your average account would be worth $300. That's a difference of just $90. Would you be willing to give up $90 a month to get a loyal, long-term customer?

And you'd only have to give up that $90 for the first six months. I can tell you from experience that if you do a good job of servicing your pool customers for six months and then raise your price by $15, at least 95 percent won't drop you. In fact, most of them will feel that they got a bargain, because they enjoyed a very low price for a reasonable period of time. It's not like you low-balled them and then jacked up the price right away.

And, let's not forget that you were still making money on all those initial $50 accounts... just not as much.

Here's how to use this strategy to start a small service business:

• Identify a service business where you see a chance to compete on price.

Some of the easiest service businesses to get into are house cleaning, lawn maintenance, exterminating, and car washing. Services like these are often offered by big operations that have been in business a long time. But they tend to have big overheads, and aren't hungry for new business, so their prices are somewhat inflated. Crunch the numbers and see if you can offer the same level of service at a better price.

• Create a marketing campaign that emphasizes the price savings.

Whatever advertising medium you choose, make sure the discounted price is mentioned prominently. For the pool service business, I used flyers and direct-mail pieces. But for the ballroom dance business, I started with classified ads in newspapers and the local Yellow Pages.

A good way to emphasize the savings is to show how it adds up over time. For instance, in the pool business, I didn't just tell prospective customers that they'd be saving $15 a month, I pointed out that they'd be saving $90 over six months.

One thing to keep in mind: Make sure your customers know they won't be getting a lower standard of service from you. Explain that you can provide high-quality service with a lower price because, for example, you're doing the work yourself and have practically no overhead.

• Be ready to begin operations immediately.

When you launch a marketing campaign that offers a greatly discounted price, you can expect to get customers ready to do business with you in as little as a few hours. So make sure you're prepared. Providing the promised service efficiently (and well) will assure your profitability.

The Power Of Visualisation

Years ago, very early in my career, I attended a two-day training session on the power of visualization and goal setting. I believe it changed my life.

I was working for a financial division of General Electric in New York City. GE was very big on continuing education for their employees at every level of the organization.

Most everyone in the training session that day, including me, was in their early twenties and had administrative positions. A few of my co-workers were skeptical about the session. They thought it was hokey and would have no real, tangible benefit for them. They looked at it as two easy days out of the office.

The session started with a series of mental exercises. Then the facilitator asked us to close our eyes and see ourselves in 10-15 years.

We went around the room, listening to each person's visualization, one by one. Most of the participants weren't very enthusiastic. They had little to say and just a vague idea of where they saw themselves in the future.

Finally, it was my turn. I announced to the room that I saw myself in a professional office environment, wearing a red "power" suit. I was confident and respected. I seemed busy, but in control. I was knowledgeable and successful. I described a complete scenario, right down to the wood my desk was made of (mahogany).

Now I wasn't sure what my actual job was in that scenario. (At the time, I was an administrative assistant in the company's marketing department and was going to college, majoring in pre-law.) Yet, I could see myself as an accomplished, corporate professional.

Until then, I'd never envisioned with such clarity what I wanted to do with my life. However, after seeing in my mind's eye where I wanted to be, I was inspired to put in the time and education needed to get there.

As with any journey, having a map helps you get to your destination quicker than if you try to go it alone. And that's what visualization is: a mental blueprint or personal roadmap for success. The image I had of myself and my future made it easier for me to take the actions I had to take.

In two years, I advanced from an administrative to a directorial position. And because I was so eager to achieve my "vision," I continued to work full-time while going to school full-time to complete my Bachelor's degree. The fire within me continued to burn, and I went on to graduate school, completing my Master's degree several years ago.

So for those who say the power of visualization is baloney, I say "It works." And I'm not the only one.

Bob Cox, the "voice" of ETR's Total Success Achievement program, is a big believer in the power of visualization. "It helps you reconnect to the 'why' behind your goals," he says. "Why do you want additional income? If the reason is to buy a new car, visualize what your new car looks like and what features it has. If you want to take your family on vacation, visualize in detail where you're going and what you're doing. Visualizing in detail will keep your goals real and motivate you to take action."

Robert Ringer has been an advocate of visualization for many years. He uses "active visualization" to handle obstacles in the boardroom and on the baseball field. Michael Masterson has used visualization to help reduce the anxiety of facing a challenge. And Brian Tracy recommends using visualization to transform bad habits into good ones.

You can apply the technique of visualization to attract success, money, love, health, power, and more.

What do you want? Where do you want to be in five or 10 or 15 years? Get a mental snapshot of the "big picture," then let your mind fill in the specifics. You may even find a picture in a magazine - a beautiful house, a sports car, or a person with a super-fit body - that will be your motivation for success.

Once you have a concrete vision in your head, you'll be much more excited about doing what's necessary to turn it into reality.

See what the power of visualization can do for you... and put yourself in control of your own destiny. You won't be disappointed.

[Ed Note: Wendy Montes de Oca is ETR's Vice President of Marketing & Business Development. People from all over the country have already experienced the power of managing their destinies through motivation, determination, and goal setting. Discover the secrets that have made them successful. Click here now to learn more.]

* Highly Recommended *

Tap a Few Keys on Your Keyboard - and Turn a SAFE 92% Profit in Under an Hour?

Rick Pendergraft makes as little as $300 an hour... more often it's up to $5,200. He will teach you his step-by-step system on how you can do the same this April at Early to Rise's Profits in Paradise conference in Orlando.

Best part: You need little money to get started. And no experience necessary, please!

Just make sure you are in Orlando along with the rest of us to attend Rick's session. For more details, click here.

Getting Tough and Taking Names

By Michael Masterson

Matt Furey is changing his sign-off line from "Kick butt and take names" to "Get tough and take names." And I understand why he's doing it. It's important to be tough - mentally tough. And Matt's a master at it.

There is no question. To be successful at anything, you have to be prepared to endure criticism - some unjustified and some justified. (Does it surprise you to know that the justified criticism hurts more?) The more successful you are, the greater the criticism you will endure.

But if you last long enough, you become immune to criticism. Your emotional skin toughens. This takes a long time.

When someone tells you they don't care what other people say, it usually means they do. Too much. But if you push forward and don't allow your detractors to distract you, you will eventually get to a height they can't reach.

I'm not there yet, but I can see it just above the next ledge. At those aerie heights, legends live. Like Galileo, Einstein, Ezra Pound, and George Carlin. On the very-soon waiting list are Howard Stern and Jerry Springer.

Ascending that cliff takes many skills. One of them is honesty - admitting your mistakes and shortcomings. Another is openness - admitting them publicly. Another is shrewdness - admitting them before anyone else does. And, finally, there is forgiveness - forgiving your critics and forgiving yourself.

Which is to say that getting tough is sometimes a matter of getting tender.

How To Make Your First Product Launch A Resounding Success

Every time you launch a new product online, you have the chance to drastically increase your profits. As I explained last week, the best way to generate momentum, interest, and monster cash flow is to turn the launch into an event. Internet users have millions of messages vying for their attention all day long. And by creating an exciting event, you'll break through the clutter and get tons of eyeballs looking in your direction.

I've already given you some ideas on how to do that. I showed you how to use a "pre-launch" to get people salivating for the actual launch. And I talked about how to use different media to grab the attention of as many potential customers as possible.

Now, here are five more strategies to make your first Product Launch a huge success.

1. Use social proof.

Social proof is a mental trigger that makes people want to do what other people are doing. So if you can show that other people are buying your product (or planning to), you will have an easier time selling it.

During your pre-launch, for example - when you get lots of people commenting on your blog or on message boards about how much they like your product... that's social proof. Your prospects can see that other people are excited about buying it. That will make them more inclined to buy it as well.

How do you get all that buzz? One easy way is to run a contest where you give a prize to whoever posts the best comment on your blog.

Another good example of social proof is testimonials from people who have benefited from your products in the past. So be sure to include lots of them in your marketing copy.

Yet another way to use social proof is with "case studies." (Actually, a case study isn't much more than a long testimonial.) For example, when I began the pre-launch for my new Product Launch Formula 2.0, I published an extensive video case study of a man (John Gallagher) who literally went from food stamps to having a six-figure business. At the end, I invited my readers to comment on the case study on my blog. Within a couple of days, I had more than 300 "rave reviews" from people who had seen it.

You can see the John Gallagher case study here.

2. Use scarcity.

Scarcity is another mental trigger that makes people want to buy. When there is less of something, they want it more.

You can create scarcity by limiting the quantity of whatever it is that you're selling. But I usually don't like to do that because it limits the amount of money you make. I prefer to limit the amount of time people have to take advantage of the deal. So I set a deadline, after which the price will be higher. And I offer extra bonuses that people will no longer get after the deadline.

I do this with almost every launch. For example, in the pre-launch for a membership site for loan officers, I offered bonus teleseminars for people who signed up on the very first day. This gave them a big incentive to act right away when the launch went live.

Your prospects will respond to a deadline like you wouldn't believe. Don't forget to send a last-minute notice 24 hours before it expires. And again about six hours before the deadline. Get ready for a rush of orders right at the end.

3. Get joint venture partners on board.

When you get other people promoting your launch to their lists on an affiliate basis, you multiply its effectiveness.

Give your partners a reason to mail to their lists when you are still in pre-launch by giving them some high-quality content to use. The content should lead people back to your site so they can sign up to be on your pre-launch "priority notification list."

Communicate with your partners throughout the launch. Let them know what's coming and why they should continue to send you traffic. And keep giving them reasons to mail to their people multiple times. The best way to do that is to give them a series of pre-launch content pieces to be released at different times.

For example, in a recent launch in the massage therapy market, one of my students released a series of content-rich downloadable PDF reports. These reports not only had solid information that would appeal to massage therapists, they were designed to get people excited about the launch. The joint venture partners were encouraged to send their lists to a page where they could download these reports... and join the pre-launch priority notification list.

4. Don't be afraid to keep e-mailing your prospects.

I call each e-mail leading up to a successful launch a "touch"... and you want to keep touching your prospects. But you have to have a reason for each touch. (No one wants to get an e-mail telling them to watch out for another e-mail in a day or two.)

For example, long before the product launch (and while the product is still actually being developed), I often send a survey to my list, asking them what they think the product should have or do. When I get their feedback, I send another e-mail to thank them for their responses and tell them what I learned. I follow up that e-mail with one or more e-mails that answer any questions or concerns they may have raised about the product. (I take one question per e-mail, and answer it thoroughly.) What I'm really doing here is pre-selling the product.

None of these e-mails are hype-filled sales messages. I am either asking for or giving solid information in each one.

As I get closer to the launch, the frequency of my e-mails increases... and I start to talk more specifically about the product and the offer.

Now this might sound like a lot of work. But it really isn't hard to do... especially when you consider the enormous payoff.

5. Perfect the launch process.

The single best thing about your first product launch is that it's just your FIRST launch.

You can take what you've learned and do it over and over again. And each time, it will get bigger and bigger. Soon enough, you'll be thinking about your own six-figure (or even seven-figure) launch.

So good luck. Go get 'em!

What Comes First? The Product?The Promotion?

At last year's ETR/AWAI Bootcamp, I was chatting with Michael Masterson before we were to give a presentation together. We were talking about what motivates people to buy the kind of programs that ETR and AWAI market.

"People, especially as the years pass, don't just care about becoming a millionaire or making six figures," he said. "What they are after most," said Michael, "is a certain kind of lifestyle... and living that life on their own terms. Money for them is mostly a means to that end."

I am convinced he is right, and marketers who simplistically trumpet "get rich" in their ads are making a mistake. Instead of selling the obvious benefit, they could be reaching their prospects on a deeper and more powerful level.

I saw this principle in action in a series of TV commercials for ITT Tech, an institute offering career training for adults.

In the old days, ads for career-training places implied that if you took their program you'd make a lot of money.

One of my clients in the career-training field back then ran an ad featuring a student standing proudly next to his new Jaguar. What the ad failed to mention was that he bought the Jaguar with money he won in a personal injury lawsuit, not with money he earned as a result of his training.

Anyway, the new ITT Tech ads are different. They feature interviews with students who graduated and are now gainfully employed. But they don't talk about money.

One of the graduates talks about how proud his kids are to see him put on a suit and tie and go to work every day. Another one talks about the overseas business trips his company sends him on, and says how he loves to travel, try new foods, see different cultures, and meet new people on the job. He says nothing about money. His mother is in the commercial, too, saying how proud she is of her son.

I have coined a name for this type of marketing. I call it "lifestyle promotion."

The marketing for the ROM Cross Trainer is an excellent example. The machine looks something like Santa's sleigh. It costs $14,615. The ad claims it can get you fit in only four minutes a day. And the company has been selling them since 1990.

Given the $14,615 purchase price, I'm guessing the target market for this product is upper-middle-class people earning six-figure incomes. They want to look and feel better, tone their bodies, and lose weight. They are told by doctors and trainers to exercise at least 20 to 30 minutes - maybe even an hour - anywhere from three to seven days a week.

But these are busy people. "I don't have time to exercise!" they say. So the ROM Cross Trainer is the perfect fitness solution for them: You can get all the exercise you need - a complete workout - in just four minutes a day!

Plus, for many of them, time is money. For an executive or entrepreneur whose time is worth, say, $100 an hour, the ROM Cross Trainer is, again, the perfect fitness solution. By cutting his exercise time by five hours a week, it will pay for itself in less than eight months - making it a good investment instead of an expense.

Instead of taking time out of your day to train at the gym, your daily exercise routine is over in less than five minutes - without leaving your home or office. Instead of going to work out at night, you can get home at a reasonable hour and have dinner with your spouse and kids.

It's all about lifestyle.

Lifestyle promotions can be written for almost any product and any market. But I find they work best with "lifestyle products" that have been "reverse engineered." In other words, instead of starting with the product, you start with the lifestyle desired by your target market. Then you design a product that helps them achieve it.

You can even write the lifestyle promotion first, creating copy you are confident will sell like gangbusters. Then you design a product that delivers on the promises in the copy.

MP, a copywriter, tells the story of how he was hired to write a direct-mail package to sell a book on decorating. As MP tells it, when he handed in his copy, the marketing director told him, "It's great - but the book doesn't fit what you've written."

MP swears the publisher had the author totally rewrite the book to fit his promotion. (And it was a big success.)

Winning The Private Money Lender's Trust

In my last article for Early to Rise, I revealed 14 ways that private lenders can help you take your real estate business to an incredible level of success.

Today, I'll show you how to take the next step: building trust between you and the people who can fund your deals.

When I decided to work with private lenders, I knew the individuals I wanted to reach were financially savvy and could appreciate the generous interest rate I offer. But people with ample finances get tons of requests for their money. So my biggest challenge - and a challenge you're sure to face when finding private lenders - was getting them to trust me enough to do business with me.

I named my company "Integrity Home Buyers" because the word integrity has meaning for me. It is the way I run my business and my life. The people around me know this, but when I decided to seek out private lenders outside my own circle of friends, they simply didn't know me. And I was asking those people to give me large sums of money and trust me to do what I said I'd do. So I had to convey my philosophy to them.

You can build trust in dozens of ways. But there are four trust-builders that have helped me find more than enough private lenders to fund all the real estate deals I want to do.

Trust Builder #1: Reach Out to the Right People.

When I started looking for potential lenders, I first determined common denominators among my target group that would help me reach them effectively.

I found that I could get an extremely targeted list of names of potential lenders from a list broker. (You can find a list broker in the phone book or on the Internet.) The list can be tailored almost any way you want, so I requested the names, addresses, and phone numbers of people who met the following criteria:

1. They owned their own home.

2. They bought items through the mail.

3. They owned bank Certificates of Deposit (CDs).

4. They were located in our county.

Here's the logic behind my choices:

1. They owned their own home.

People who own their own home are probably already aware of what a great investment real estate can be.

2. They bought items through the mail.

If they buy things through the mail, I figure they will take time to read things that I send to them through the mail. (One of my primary marketing tools at the time was a postcard.)

3. They owned bank Certificates of Deposit (CDs).

These people obviously have available money. With the banks paying a pathetically low rate on CDs, my program is that much more attractive. (That was true when I got into the business - and CD rates are even lower today.)

4. They were located in our county.

This criterion is crucial to building trust and credibility. I focus on my local market, because it is likely that they already know about me from my other marketing efforts. They've seen my "I Buy Houses" signs for years. I sponsor Little League teams, so they may have seen the T-shirts with "I Buy Houses" and my phone number. And they may have read newspaper articles the local paper has done about my company.

In short, I believed from the start that lenders would be comfortable loaning to one of their neighbors. Plus, since they'd already seen my ads and heard about me in the community, they'd believe I was the real deal. And I figured they'd enjoy being able to drive by the house on which they held the mortgage while my crew was doing the work. (This turned out to be another huge trust builder. It made them feel safe, seeing exactly where their money was.)

Trust Builder #2: Crush Your Prospects with Credibility.

Once I received my list of targeted names, I mailed postcards inviting them to a luncheon. I didn't have a tremendous crowd, but I didn't need one. The number of guests didn't matter as much as the number of guests in my targeted market who could take advantage of my program.

One of the best ways to establish your integrity is to create a "credibility kit" that you can hand out to potential lenders. Mine is a 30-page, spiral-bound book. On the cover are color pictures of more than a dozen houses I've bought and rehabbed. Before they even open the book, they see before-and-after pictures that show I have a seasoned real estate business... evidence of my work that they can drive by to see in person.

Inside the book, you want to include information that sends a strong message that you are a trustworthy person who knows his or her business. My book includes a brief history of my investing career, my company philosophy, pages of testimonials, certificates from training I have completed, and information-packed special reports.

Trust Builder #3: Become a Household Name.

The credibility kit is a great start, but you can't stop there. To grow your business, you want your name out there. You want the prospective lender to say, "Hey, I've heard of you." Or "I've seen the T-shirts on the Little League team you sponsor." Or "You're the 'I Buy Houses' guy." Familiarity makes an impact, and recognition conveys credibility.

For example, about a year ago I was able to add something new to my credibility kit: a copy of an interview with my local newspaper. They did a long article with lots of great information about my company and my lender program. Then, recently, the reporter came back and did an article focusing on the lender program - which, of course, I am now adding to my packet.

Talk about credibility! That's the kind of publicity money can't buy.

Trust Builder #4: Join the BBB.

Another credibility-building tool is to join the Better Business Bureau. It's a great way to let people know that you consider yourself a serious, responsible businessperson. It also authorizes you to use their logo on your materials, which further conveys credibility.

People frequently check with the BBB before making a major financial decision. With good reason. To be a member of the BBB, you have to agree to "follow the highest principles of business ethics and voluntary self-regulation" and "have a proven record of marketplace honesty and integrity."

Early in my career, all of the above strategies combined to take my real estate investing to new heights. I had targeted my market correctly, won the trust of several private lenders, and had awesome results. After just two luncheons, I had $1 million to buy houses with... without having to hassle with a bank.

Progressing Towards Your Most Neglected Goals

To Master Plan your new life, you must begin with long-term goals that correspond to your core values. From that good start, you must establish yearly and monthly objectives. Based on those objectives, you create weekly and daily task lists. Doing all that will help greatly. But if you want to really change your life, you have to learn how to prioritize.

I didn't always know how to prioritize. For much of my business career, I relied on goal setting and task lists and was happy with the results. But when I turned 50 and started writing for Early to Rise, I began to read how other business leaders achieved their goals. And that's when I discovered what a huge difference prioritizing can make.

The most important lesson I learned came from The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. In that book, Covey presents a technique for prioritizing that impressed me greatly and soon became a central part of my planning process.

Divide your tasks, Covey says, into four categories:

• Not important and not urgent

• Not important but urgent

• Important but not urgent

• Important and urgent

In the "not important and not urgent" category, you would put such things as:

• Catching up on office gossip

• Shopping online for personal items

• Answering unimportant phone calls

• Responding to unimportant e-mails

In the "not important but urgent" category, you would include:

• Returning phone calls from pesky salespeople

• Making last-minute preparations for an office party

• Attending a required meeting that doesn't help your career

• Planning for a meeting that doesn't matter

In the "important and urgent" category, you might list:

• Making last-minute preparations for an important meeting with the boss

• Making last-minute sales calls to key clients

• Solving unexpected problems

And, finally, in the "important but not urgent" category, you might include:

• Learning how to write better

• Learning how to speak better

• Learning how to think better

• Working on your novel

• Getting down to a healthy weight

When you break up tasks into these four categories, it's easy to see that you should give no priority at all to "not important and not urgent" tasks. In fact, these tasks should not be done at all. They are a waste of time. Yet many people spend lots of time on them because they tend to be easy to do and sometimes enjoyable in a mindless sort of way. Or because they are afraid to get to work on important tasks because they are afraid of failure.

Even worse than spending time on tasks that are not important and not urgent is spending time on those that are not important but urgent. They should have been dealt with long before they reached the crisis stage.

If you discover that you are spending a lot of time on unimportant tasks, you've got a serious problem. Unless you change your ways, you're unlikely to achieve any of your important goals.

So which tasks should you give priority to?

In Seven Habits, Covey says that most people think they should give priority to important and urgent tasks. But this is a mistake. "It's like the pounding surf," he says. "A huge problem comes and knocks you down and you're wiped out. You struggle back up only to face another one that knocks you down and slams you to the ground." You are "literally beat up by problems all day every day."

All urgent tasks - both unimportant and important - are problematic: They are urgent because you've neglected something or because they are important to other people (like your boss). In either case, you need to find a way to keep most of them from winding up on your daily to-do list. This means making some changes in your work habits - usually a combination of being more efficient and delegating more chores to other people.

Urgent tasks will burn you out. And turn you into an unhappy workaholic. If you want transformation in your life, you have to give priority to the important but not urgent tasks - because those are the ones that will help you achieve your major, long-term goals.

It's not easy.

The important but not urgent tasks whisper, while the urgent tasks shout. But there is a way to get that critical but quiet stuff done in four simple steps:

Step 1. When planning your day, divide your tasks into Covey's four categories: not important and not urgent, not important but urgent, important but not urgent, and important and urgent.

Step 2. You will, of course, have to do the urgent tasks - at least until you get better at taking charge of your schedule. And you will have to find a way to get rid of the tasks that are not important and not urgent. But make sure you include one important but not urgent task that, when completed, will move you closer to one of your long-term goals.

Step 3. Highlight that important but not urgent task on your to-do list. Make it your number one priority for the day.

Step 4. Do that task first - before you do anything else.

Initially, you will find it difficult to do an important but not urgent task first. There are reasons for that.

• Since it is not urgent, you don't feel like it's important. But it is.

• Since it supports a goal you've been putting off, you are in the habit of neglecting it.

• You are in the habit of neglecting it because you don't think it's important and because you might be afraid of doing it.

• You might be afraid of doing it because you know, deep down inside, that it will change your life. And change, even good change, is scary.

But once you start using this little four-step technique, you'll notice something right away.

The first thing you'll notice is how good you feel. Accomplishing something you've been putting off is energizing. It will erase some doubts you have about yourself - doubts caused by years of "never getting to" your long-term goals.

That extra energy and confidence will grow, and will fuel you throughout the day. This will make it easier for you to accomplish other important but not urgent tasks.

As the days go by, you will realize that you are making measurable progress toward your neglected goals. In just a few weeks, you will be amazed at how much you've already done. And in 52 weeks - a short year from now - you will be a brand-new, much more productive person.

That year is going to pass by anyway. You are going to spend the time somehow. Why not do it by taking charge of your schedule? Why not spend that time on yourself - on what's really important to you?