The Three Month Vacation Podcast: Online Small Business|marketing Strategy Plan| Sean D'souza | Psychotactics

What is the meaning of life? This utterly vast and philosophical question pops into our lives with amazing frequency. But is it the right question to ask? What if we move the words around a bit and asked another question. Like: What gives your life meaning? Hmm, that changes things a bit doesn't it? And even when we change the words, we may still move towards the specific. So why does the abstract help more? Find out in this episode. http://www.psychotactics.com/meaning-of-life/ ---------------------------   ------- The Transcript What gives your life meaning? It was 6:20 AM. I was close to the beach, halfway through my walk, listening to this podcast on Transom.org. There was this reporter who was asking older people how they went through their lives. They were 100 years old. She started out with this question, which was: What is the meaning of life? I’ve grappled with this question before, and it sounds very philosophical, but then somewhere in the middle, the question changed. Those words just interchanged

When you're giving away bonuses, it's easy to believe you don't need to give away your best product or service. The best information always needs to be sold—so you can earn a decent living. And yet, this podcast episode takes an opposite stance. You need to put your best stuff out in front—free. Yes, give away the goodies, no matter whether you're in info-products or content marketing; services or running a workshop. Giving away outstanding content is the magic behind what attracts—and keeps clients. -------------------- Resources To access this audio + transcript: http://www.psychotactics.com/100 Email me at: sean@psychotactics.com Twitter/Facebook: seandsouza Magic? Yes, magic: http://www.psychotactics.com/magic -------------------- In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: The Concept of Consumption Part 2: Why Package Your Free Content Part 3: Why You Must Feel Pain Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer. Useful Resources 5000bc: Where smart people come together to help ea

When you start writing articles, you get advice from all sides. But there's advice you don't want to hear. It's advice that goes against the grain. And yet, it's this advice that forms the hallmark of great writing. So how do you get from average to great? You take the road less-taken. It's harder and yet far more satisfying. Here's advice you probably don't want to hear. --------------- A friend wrote to me today and asked me what seemed like a pretty normal question. She expected 5 lines, maybe 6. Instead I ended up with 1800 words. So what was her question? What traits do you consider to be hallmarks of quality in a piece of content? The answer is something that most writers may not want to hear. It’s an answer that demands sacrifice, going against the grain and being persistent when things are going horribly wrong. Still interested? Well, here’s the question again: What traits do you consider to be hallmarks of quality in a piece of content? The answer 1- contrast 2- lack of pandering 3- the gap between s

We all want to create profitable products but aren't sure where to start. We hope for some amazing formula, when all you really need are three core questions. When you are clear about the answers to the three questions, you can take an amazingly pedestrian, everyday concept and make it hugely profitable. So what are the three questions you need to have in place and how can you get started today? ----------------------- How to Create a Profitable Idea for Business Around July 2000, I was made redundant from my job at a web design firm. Life wasn’t supposed to unfold this way. I’d just moved to Auckland, New Zealand from Mumbai, India a few months prior. And here I was, barely a few months later, without a job and with a mortgage that hovered around $200,000 (yes, we’d just bought a house). What do you do when you’re hurled into such a situation? I turned to Photoshop, but not quite. There’s a story behind the Photoshop story and it began back in India, in July. Back in Mumbai, I freelanced as a cartoonist and

It's super-easy to tell stories of success and how everything went from good to great. But what about the events when you had to eat humble pie? Or the times when you were scared out of your mind? Here are three stories which by some coincidence involve presentations. Nonetheless, there's a solid lesson behind each story and it's well learning from. ------------------------------------------ Imagine your website has just gone live and the next thing you know, you’re on a radio show. That’s exactly what happened to me one week in June 2001. After weeks of hard work and lots of back and forth, my website had gone live. By today’s standards it wasn’t a very flashy website. It had tiny fonts and was extremely spartan, but finally it was up and running. That very afternoon, I was at a store when I ran into the presenters of a popular radio show. They asked me a few questions and then asked me what I did. At the end of the question set they announced my website on air. I was excited beyond belief I called my webm

17 questions? Why have 17 questions in a testimonial? And what if the client won’t answer the questions? The reason for the 17 question testimonial is simple. It’s not a testimonial any more, it’s a experience on paper. When other clients read it, they can sense the ups and downs. They can see the final result. It makes your testimonial stand out. In order to get this 17 question testimonial going, you have to have a strategy in place. This podcast shows you exactly what you need to do so that you can get the answers your business deserves. --------------- In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: Why you need to send instructions before asking the questions Part 2: Creating compartmentalisation: Bento Box Style Part 3: Why it’s a mistake not to send examples Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer. ------------------ A few billion years ago something quite amazing—and destructive—occurred on Earth. Oxygen was produced for the first time. If you were to go back into Earth’s his

Whenever you run into tips on productivity it’s always this earth shaking advice You’re advised to make these monumental changes to improve your business or life. In reality all you need are tiny little tweaks. Important tweaks, but tiny ones. And some of these tweaks are slightly irreverent. Which is what makes these productivity tips even more interesting. You’ll enjoy this episode on productivity—gentle productivity—and here’s a tip. You may end up sleeping a lot more as well! --------------------- In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: How to work with a timer Part 2: The power of sleepPart 3: Why you need to focus on the road, not the destination. Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer. --------------------- I’ve always assumed you needed a nut cracker to open a walnut. Then I learned you could easily use the rear end of a screwdriver. A couple of hard whacks along the ridge, and the nut cracks open easily. To prove the point, I gave my niece Marsha to crack open the n

There seem to be two sets of clients: really painful ones and amazing It’s the painful ones that seem to drain an enormous amount of energy and time. They’re the ones that you constantly have to battle with. But how do you know in advance how to avoid these clients? There are red flags in place. In this episode you’ll learn  how at Psychotactics (for the most part) we avoid painful clients. ---------------- In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: Why and how to add  barriers Part 2: How to filter through testimonials Part 3: How to spot ‘Red Flags’ Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer. ---------------- How We Avoid Energy-Sapping Clients at Psychotactics Which ants have more offspring? The ants that forage more and hence have more food supplies? Or the ants that are do less foraging and hence have less food? Incredible as it may seem it’s the ants that restrain their foraging that fare better Biological studies have almost always believed that species that have the greates

In an interview with Tim Ferris, marketer, Seth Godin says that 97% clients drop out from his online courses. And under good conditions, 80% drop out. Yet there's are three core reasons why clients drop out and unless you tackle those issues, it's impossible to stop the dropout rate from spiralling. At Psychotactics, our dropout rate is a measly 10%. Which means that 90% of the clients finish the course. How is that possible? How come there's such a massive difference? This episode shows you what you can do to achieve far superior goals than many, if not most trainers online. ------------------------------------ In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: The power of energy management Part 2: Why the Safe Zone is important Part 3: Why you need group filtration and how to design it ------------------------------------ The Dropout Factor 97% of client drop out in most online courses. 80% of clients drop out from my courses. – Seth Godin The responsibility of the learning depends on the teacher. – Michel Thomas Wh

Should you lower your prices? In Part 1 of Persistent Myths of Pricing (And How To Overcome Them), we looked at Myth 1: Ending prices with 7 or 9 (e.g. $97 or $99 instead of $100) Now, let’s look at Myth 2: The Fear of Pricing—You can feel the “right price” in your gut. Should you lower your prices to get greater sales? Listen to this podcast as we explore the second part on the myths of pricing. ================= Imagine you’re in New Zealand right now. And you’re about to jump off a bridge—with a bungee cord, of course. What can you feel in your gut? Yup, fear. But how do you know it’s fear? And more importantly what would you need to do to get rid of the fear? Remember the fear you had when you first rode a bicycle? You probably don’t, but the fear existed. It exists when you’re learning to drive a car, going for a first date, and there’s even a trace of that fear when you first land a new job or show up on vacation in a city you’ve never visited before. The moment you are dealing with the unknown, the fea

When you’re giving away bonuses, it’s easy to believe you don’t need to give away your best product or service. The best information always needs to be sold—so you can earn a decent living. And yet, this podcast episode takes an opposite stance. You need to put your best stuff out in front—free. Yes, give away the goodies, no matter whether you’re in info-products or content marketing; services or running a workshop. Giving away outstanding content is the magic behind what attracts—and keeps clients. Read: ww.psychotactics.com/myth-pricing-overcome/ Tell a friend: http://www.psychotactics.com/tellall ------------- “Don’t go out in cold without your coat—or you’ll get sick”. Which one of us haven’t heard our parents insisting on us wearing a coat? Almost every parent on the planet firmly believes that a cold is sure to descend upon you, if you don’t have that coat on. And yet, you don’t get colds because of the temperature outside. You get a cold from viruses—and guess what? Those viruses are more likely be

It might seem like perseverance is a good thing. We’ve been told to persist in the face of odds. Yet, there are times when you should stop. How do you know when to stop? And why bother to persevere when failure is waiting around the corner? Find out why perseverance can be a real pain, and when it can be a blessing. Enjoy this episode on perseverance and yes, enjoy the music. In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: The link between failure and perseverance Part 2: Is there a way to know when to stop? Part 3: Why perseverance could do with a coach To read this online:  http://www.psychotactics.com/why-persevere-fails/ To tell a friend: http://www.psychotactics.com/general/podcast-friend/ ===================== Should You Give Up? Or Should You Persist? When you get to your office and want to print some material, what do you do? You’re likely to turn on your computer, hit the print button and then voilà, out come a crisp, laser-printed copy of whatever was on your computer screen. Back in 1969, an optical eng

Where do we draw inspiration from? When we try to beat resistance, we tend to look at what wehaven’t done and what needs doing. Yet sometimes resistance can bepushed over with a simple concept of inspiration. Where do we draw that inspiration from? And how do we keep theinspiration constant? In this episode we look at inspiration, but also at the “lousycarpenter” and “trigger” concept. =============== It’s said that a bad carpenter blames his tools But what’s not said is what makes a good carpenter. A good carpenter isn’t always the one who has the bestequipment. But a good carpenter makes sure he learns how to usethat equipment fluently. And there’s a reason why you need to spendtime learning how to use the equipment. It’s called tiredness. Let’s take my early battles with InDesign, for instance InDesign is a layout program with which I do all my e-books andreports. I learned InDesign, but not quite well enough. So if I hadto do a simple task like updating the Contents Page, I had tomanually update it every

Is resistance a game? It can feel a bit like that when you're almost always on the losing team. But often the reason why we lose to resistance is because we don't realise how the brain works. And this brain stuff was studied by researchers at the University of Cincinnati. What they found was astounding. In just over 10 minutes, our brains start to waver and we lose focus. So how can we make sure we don't give in to resistance? Find out in Part 2 of the Resistance game. ============== Imagine you had two loans to pay back Loan A was $100,000 at 19% interest per annum. Loan B was $200 at 1% interest. Which loan would you pay back first? Loan A or Loan B? If you chose Loan A, then almost every financial consultant on the planet would agree with you. Except Dave Ramsey To everyone, but Dave, the logic is clear. Loan A has a much higher rate of interest. Logically you should pay back the higher rate of interest first. But as you’d expect, Dave disagrees. That’s because Dave understands inertia better than most oth

Resistance seems like an overbearing force in our lives We want to achieve a lot, but as soon as we get started, resistance kicks in. But did you know there are ways around resistance? Resistance loves a loner. If you’re working alone, you’re just setting yourself for an encounter with resistance. Resistance loves to play the game of winner. We need to put resistance in second place. Here’s how to go about the task of winning the resistance game. ============= Resistance loves a loner Because loners have limited energy. They start out on a project, all excited about what’s about to unfold. Then, for some reason or the other, they lose their way. And that’s when resistance gangs up on the loner big time. It’s not much of a fight. The loner is already exhausted. One tiny tap on the head from resistance, and the loner falls into a heap on the floor. But this miserably one-sided bout could be avoided with the understanding of group work. In Africa there’s a saying: If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want

When it comes to feedback, almost of us hit a blank wall. Ask a client to "help you fix" your product or service and you get two or three small suggestions. So how about a 1500 word answer instead? What if you could get the client to go into every nook and cranny and give you feedback that would drive you crazy? Yes, of course it drives you crazy, because you have to go about fixing everything? Or do you? This episode on feedback goes deep into what you should ask, why and when you should ask for the feedback. And then how to cope with feedback when you can't fix things. It also talks about how feedback causes the clients to come back repeatedly to buy your products and services. Sounds exciting? Well go on, listen to the episode. And if you missed part one here is the link. Read and Listen: http://www.psychotactics.com/secret-feedback/ Listen: http://traffic.libsyn.com/psychotactics/86_Feedback-The_Secret_of_Returning_Clients-Part_2.mp3

Most of us are like crazy chickens, focused solely on attraction and conversion. They fail to see the biggest resource in our business—returning clients. If you're able to keep your existing clients and they buy everything in sight, you may never need new clients again. But what magic spell would cause them to buy everything in sight? Incredibly, the answer is "feedback". Wait, not testimonials—feedback. Feedback is that ugly sound of "complaint". It's screechy and seemingly yucky. But we're not just aiming for a bit of feedback, but feedback that's 1500 words or more. Yup, how do you get a mountain of the "yucky stuff?" Let's find out why you need to get deep into the world of feedback. And put your Teflon suit on. You're going to need it. Join us as we explore Part 1: How do you get feedback? And when do you get feedback? Part 2: Why safety plays a big role in feedback Part 3: How to copy with feedback =========== I’d been driving for about 5 years before I got to Auckland, New Zealand When we moved here, h

What’s one of the biggest “rookie mistakes” when putting a landing page together? It’s the rookie, sitting down and writing the entire page at their desk. If you want a reasonably boring landing page, write it yourself. But what if you didn’t write it yourself? Who would write it for you?  Find out more in Part 2 of this series. ============== In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: How do you find the ideal client? Part 2: What happens when you dig into a single problem? Part 3:  What do you do with all the other problems?  ============== There’s a reason why I moved from PC to the Mac. In 2008 I had to do a series of presentations for a radio station.  Since the clients of radio stations are always looking for ways to get the attention of their clients, the presentation of The Brain Audit seemed like the perfect match. If there’s one thing I’m very possessive about, it’s the slides for my presentation. I tend to make changes, simplifying the content and moving the slides around until the very last minute.

Did you know that landing pages fail almost at the headline stage? We’re all told to create landing pages.  So why do they fail? The answer, it seems, can be found at any international airport. When planes land, they don’t land all at once. They land one at a time. Yet on a landing page, we scrunch the issues together. We throw everything at the page. That’s a mistake. And this episode tells you why it’s a mistake and how to fix it. ======= In this episode Sean talks about Element 1: How to choose one problem Element 2: Defining why the problem is important Element 3: What to do with the rest of the problems Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer.   Useful Resources Find out: Why clients buy and why they don’t. Listen: The biggest “rookie mistakes” when putting a landing page together? Read or listen: How To Design A Sequential Landing Page—Part 2 ========== When you’re at a derby, you notice something interesting. Every single horse bolts out of the gate all at once. But wai

Why do we struggle to write? The ONE word? What’s that? And why does it play such an incredibly important part in article writing? That’s what we explore in this second part of what I’ve learned in article writing. We also look at why we struggle to write—Yes, we seem to get in our own way most of the time. How do we get others to help us? Find out more here. ========= In this episode Sean talks about Part 1: Why the ONE word concept is your compass in the darkness Part 2: Why when we sit down to write, we often get into a state of randomness Part 3: How can you be sure you have the right ‘One Word’ ? Right click here and ‘save as’ to download this episode to your computer.   Useful Resource 5000bc: If you suspect that your business could be bringing in a lot more revenue but you don’t have a clue how to make that happen without hype or hassle, 5000bc is a must-have resource. Listen or read: Part 1 of Three Interesting Things I Know About Writing ============== Element 3: Why the ONE word concept is your comp