The secret to keep your blog going and the secret to success

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I love learning from experts who are doers. Theory is one thing; practice is another.

One of my business mentors is amazingly successful. He has an incredible staff of 300 people, his business is annually voted “the best place to work” in his city, his work is literally changing people’s lives and his business is EXTREMELY profitable.

Always the student, I asked the mentor this question, “If you could offer one key to success that I can share with my students and kids, what would it be?” This mentor went to his bookshelf and pulled off a book that he said held all the answers to how to be successful.

When he said this, I was literally sitting on the edge of my seat anticipating what the title would be. I almost couldn’t wait!

Then I saw the cover of the book and almost laughed out loud.

The title of the book? The Tortoise and the Hare.

The mentor made it abundantly clear he was not joking. He said the problem with most people is this: when they get an idea, they get really, really excited. They put a bunch of energy into their idea initially. But after a short period of time, their initial burst of enthusiasm cannot keep them going. The work to keep their idea going gets tedious or boring and so they simple stop doing the required work.

He told me it’s a lot like New Year’s resolutions. Everyone starts out the new year excited and ready to go. They list out their resolutions and proclaim, “THIS IS THE YEAR I’m going to stick to my resolutions. Really, I am!”

But what happens? Statistically speaking, most people give up on their resolutions after a few short weeks when the work is tedious and progress is slow.

This, he said, is when successful folks keep going. They know that little investments, CONSISTENTLY made over time, are what makes the difference between a dreamer and a doer.

Finally, he offered this example, which I now offer to you.

He said this: “Suppose I give you two options. With the first option, I’ll give you $500,000 today. OR, I’ll give you a penny a day that will double every day for 31 days. What do you choose?”

Most people assume there must be some trick so they go with the penny, but I guessed that in reality, most people would take the immediate payment (and spend it right away).

So let’s look at the numbers

  • DAY 1 You can either have $500,000 or $.01. The choice is pretty obvious, right?
  • DAY 11: Either $500,000 or $10.24 if you chose the penny doubling every day. Still a no-brainer, right?
  • DAY 21: Either $500,000 or $10,485.76 (that $500k is still looking really good!)
  • DAY 31: Either $500,000 or $10,737,418.24 (WOW!)

If you choose the penny doubling every day, you will end up with a lot more money IN THE LONG run. Almost $10,200,000 more. But it takes patience and it takes time. The vast majority of people will give up by day 11, declaring, “This just isn’t working.”

But oftentimes it is working, just not as quickly as you’d like.

Just because you aren’t seeing huge spikes in your blog traffic numbers right away or you don’t have huge numbers subscribing to your email newsletter after 6 months doesn’t mean you won’t eventually.

Keep focused on helping your core audiences on a consistent basis and I promise you, if you are truly being helpful on a consistent basis over time, you will see the rewards to your bottom line.

HOMEWORK

If you haven’t already, set up your blog. If you don’t know how to set one up, connect with me for a free 30 minute consultation and I’ll walk you through how to do this.

If you do have a blog set up, start creating blog posts by answering your customer questions. Refer back to my tips on writing strong blog posts and titles and GET TO IT! If you need help with putting your posts together or you need someone to review them, we’re happy to help. But what ever you do, just get going. The rewards will be worth it!

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