Claiming The Owner’s Identity in Your Business

Good morning! Happy weekend!

I’ve had a very productive week. I hope you had a good one, too!

I finished my YouTube training and had my monthly meeting with my mentor, Dean Holland.

Regarding the training, I’m at the point where I need to put it into practice before I know how to explain it to you. At the moment, it’s all foggy in my head. I’ve written a rough draft of my first video script and purchased a microphone. But according to my schedule, today (Thursday), I begin writing my blog. As much as I want to jump ahead to tell you I made that first video, I will stay disciplined and write my blog.

Now, I do have something exciting for you today. In this month’s meeting, Dean discussed the importance of claiming a business owner’s identity. It is more than just a la de dah feel like you’re the boss mindset. It’s hard-hitting and very practical.

It’ll be a treat for you to enjoy, I’m sure!

Let’s go ahead and get started.

Do You Feel Disingenuous?

Do you feel like a fake recommending products on how to make money online when you’re not yet making money online? Do you feel like if someone examines the real you, they’d think you’re an imposter?

Dean’s funny example illustrates why there’s no need to feel like an imposter.

If you were an affiliate for a vegetable gardening kit, would you need to be an expert vegetable gardener? No! You’d have to connect people interested in growing vegetables with this product.

In the same way, as an affiliate marketer in the make money online niche, you recommend people who’ve made it and products used in that industry to someone who wants to do the same.

As a beginner, you have an immense advantage. You can relate to your audience because you are new as well. That gives you an advantage over a millionaire guru. People can relate to you.

Also, if you’re like me, I only promote products I have experience with. Since I started from nothing, I’ve got another edge as I prove their effectiveness!

Affiliate Marketing Is A Business Model

Question: Do you feel you are promoting someone else’s business as an affiliate marketer, or are you growing your own business?

Affiliate marketing is a business model, so you are a business owner.

Most people begin as affiliate marketers; it makes sense to become good at marketing before creating your own product.

Examples of affiliate marketing include network marketing, drop shipping, influencers, and price comparison websites…

Most companies use affiliates to promote their products.

Creators and Affiliate Marketers Are Both Business Owners

What’s the difference? A creator creates and sells. An affiliate marketer only needs to sell.

You must act and think differently as a business owner rather than an employee of someone else’s business.

In other words, you must adopt a different approach.

As a marketer, you must focus on four core areas and track results. The creator does these things as well, but as the marketer, it is the only thing you need to do. These are, as seen above, attracting traffic, getting emails, making offers, and following up.

Can You Confidently Say Yes to These Four Questions?

1. I take full responsibility for my actions and results because this is my business and mine alone.

2. I have selected my traffic strategy and am currently learning and practicing it daily.

3. I am tracking my results daily.

4. I am committed to continual practice and improvement so I experience consistent progress and get better at my craft.

Until you can say YES to those four statements, you will struggle to make the progress and results you desire.

---

Dean doesn’t pull his punches, does he?

---

Asking For Help

If you say no, that’s where you must ask for help.

If you’re stuck understanding what to do or where to turn – ask.

If you’re stuck with what to do for traffic or jumping from strategy to strategy – ask.

If you’re stuck with fear of sending emails or your emails are not getting results – ask.

If you’re stuck making offers – ask.

Whatever reason you’re not making progress, you need to ask for one reason alone.

Your ability to do these things successfully is the only thing between you and your goals of where you want to be.

Why It’s Tough

We must do the right things long enough to get good at them.

The long enough part entails changing habits, routines, and patterns we’ve built up over our lives.

We have unrealistic expectations of ourselves. Sometimes, we think we can change all this in an instant and get everything we want really, really quickly.

But the reality is that before we can achieve the success we want, we have to become the people capable of that success.

Our habits, routines, and patterns need to become that of a successful person.

Only once we become capable of it is it possible to get it.

Those new things must be done regularly. They must become your new routine and your new habits.

If you’re doing things that are not aligned with your strategy because they’re habits, you need to adjust those habits.

It’s NOT easy.

You need to become consciously aware of what you’re doing and identify if it’s not helping you achieve your goals.

Finding Excitement in Progress

You can alter the path you’re on.

You’ve heard the saying: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Look in the rearview mirror behind you and learn from your past.

Note what needs to change so you can change and become a better version of yourself.

We cannot just accept excuses for our situation.

We need to eradicate the bad habits and amplify the good ones.

In a focused one hour a day, working this hard, you can make significant progress. If you can do more, fantastic. Don’t underestimate the power of time.

What I’ve Done to Make Progress

I’ve done a few things this quarter that have helped me make progress in these tough changes.

I purchased a fifteen minute appointment calendar. I don’t use it to plan ahead. I write down what I’ve done in that fifteen minutes each day.

It helps me see how much time I’m actually spending on my business and the small increments help me see if I’m staying focused.

I tried keeping track first in a spiral. This oversized pre-written version is easy to find no matter where I’ve laid it’s neatly pre-printed for me.

It starts at 6 in the morning and goes through 8:00. I work two to six at my regular job. So I’ve started changing the hours in the calendar to the hours I have available.

I get up at 5, skip hours 2-5 PM, and can continue the calendar through to the 10:00 PM hour.

I’ve also read Atomic Habits by James Clear.

He talks about identifying all your habits, determining which ones need to change, and how to actually go about changing them.

He’s got some ideas that are not standard. How to make a negative habit seem really negative was helpful. I highly recommend the book.

It helped me rethink everything I do and how it serves my ultimate purpose.

His big idea is that the smallest of changes make big differences, hence the title. He proves this by real-life examples pretty convincingly.

Conclusion

Dean’s talk was hard-hitting, huh? What impacted you most?

What habits are you working on so that you can become a better business owner?

Do you need to ask someone for help? I’m here for you. Please reach out to me in the comments or become one of my accountability partners and reach out to me via email.

If you’re interested in affiliate marketing and aren’t sure where to begin, I recommend this book, The Iceberg Effect. It’s what initially gave me direction and confidence in the affiliate marketing business model.

I hope you feel empowered by Dean’s message of change and taking ownership.

Ciao for now,

Nakina