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

The Three-Month Vacation, that's one of the things that make me really happy. But what else is required to keep that happiness level up? The key lies in identifying the obstacles. When we remove the obstacles, we know how to get to happiness. This may seem like a weird topic to take on, but check it out for yourself. Happiness isn't some weird pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It isn't some Internet marketer promising you endless clients. It's reachable, you know. So check it out. -------------------- Useful Resources Email me at: sean@psychotactics.com  Magic? Yes, magic: http://www.psychotactics.com/magic   Finish The Book Workshop: http://www.psychotactics.com/dc Meet Me In Denver: http://www.psychotactics.com/denver   For the Headline Report (Free): http://www.psychotactics.com/   -------------------- Time Stamps 00:00:20 Introduction: The Secret of Happiness 00:01:23 The List, the list, the list 00:03:56 Obstacle 1: Inefficiency 00:07:07 Obstacle 2: Greed 00:09:32 Obstacle 3: Self-doubt 00:11:30 Sum

It might seem that it's impossible to get ideas for your articles. And it is. You go completely blank. Of course, there's a reason for all this blankness. And just as you can go blank, you have more ideas than you know what to do with. Wow, can this really be possible? Can you really have tons of ideas? Yes, you can. Provided you use all, or at least one of these systems. But hey, find out for yourself. -------------------- Useful Resources Email me at: sean@psychotactics.com Magic? Yes, magic: http://www.psychotactics.com/magic Finish The Book Workshop: http://www.psychotactics.com/dc Meet Me In Denver: http://www.psychotactics.com/denver For the Headline Report (Free): http://www.psychotactics.com/   -------------------- Time Stamps 00:00:20 Introduction: Where To Get Ideas 00:02:05 Table of Contents: Input, Brainstorming, Client Questions 00:02:46 Element 1: The Importance of Input 00:07:46 Element 2: Brainstorming 00:10:39 Element 3: How To Get Clients To Pitch In 00:16:00 Summary 00:17:13 Announcements

We are prone to think that the opposite of success is failure. And it's not. It's decay. The opposite of moving forward, isn't standing still. It's decay. Like a pool of water that gets stagnant, we decay. Our businesses, whether we're in an online business, or offline?it decays. So how do we overcome this decay? Contact Details and Links To e-mail me: sean@psychotactics.com For the crazy newsletter: http://www.psychotactics.com Finish your book: http://www.psychotactics.com/dc (yes, that's the workshop) Chaos in your life? http://www.psychotactics.com/chaos Time Stamps  00:00:20 Introduction 00:01:58 What's The Opposite of Success? 00:02:53 Table of Contents / 00:03:10 Part 1: Learning Decay / 00:06:03 Part 2: Fitness Decay / 00:09:24 Part 3: Achievement Decay / 00:13:46 Summary / 00:15:36 The One Thing You Can Do Today / 00:16:26 Final Announcements + Workshop DC Transcript: Sean:Hi. This is Sean D'Souza from Psychotactics.com and you are listening to the three-month vacation podcast. This podcast isn't

Why did we have so many great artists, painters and sculptors in the Renaissance? Why does Brazil produce so many great soccer players? Is slow learning better than fast? Learn more by reading "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle. / / For more: http://www.psychotactics.com / / sean@psychotactics.com

If you're struggling to get attention on your website or when you meet a client, it's because you're not using two core factors: novelty and consequences. When you use these two concepts back to back with each other, something magical happens?you get attention! http://www.psychotactics.com/dc (Finish Your Book Workshop in Washington DC) http://www.psychotactics.com/denver (Where I'm speaking at the Copyblogger conference). http://www.psychotactics.com/magic (for magic, of course) === Sean D'Souza:Hi. This is Sean D'Souza from Psychotactics.com, and you're listening to The Three-Month Vacation Podcast. This podcast isn't some magic trick about working less. Instead, it's about how to really enjoy your work and enjoy your vacation time.  On January 15, 2008, Steve Jobs stood in front of an audience and in his hand he had something that seemed quite boring. It was just an envelope, a yellow envelope, a manila envelope but, still, quite boring. Then he proceeded to take out a computer from that envelope, and th

We often wonder why the sale gets killed. Why the customer walks away. Sometimes it's because we're doing a lousy presentation. Or we forget the facts. But often, we get everything perfectly right. And then it's time to ask for the deal. And we freeze. We get needy. We hope the neediness helps to get some empathy. And in reality, it kills the deal. Or at least puts us in a weak spot. So where does this neediness show up? And how do barriers help to avoid being needy? Workshop: http://www.psychotactics.com/dc Speaking at Copyblogger: http://www.psychotactics.com/denver Contact me: sean@psychotactics.com Zany newsletter:  http://www.psychotactics.com   Time Stamps 00:00:20 Introduction 00:02:25 Table of Contents: Status and Urgency 00:04:27 The Story of 5000bc.com 00:07:58 How Good Should You Be To Put Up Barriers? 00:10:02 Increasing Level of Barriers 00:12:43 Final Announcements   Transcript Sean D'Souza:            Hi, this is Sean D'Souza from psychotactics.com, and you're listening to the Three Month Vaca

The hardest thing in business?or life is the factor of confidence. Whether you're in online marketing, selling products or services, or run a physical store, the confidence goes up and down. And yet, confidence is what creates sales. Sales, after all, is a transfer of enthusiasm from one person to another. So how can we create this enthusiasm without confidence? And where do we start looking? http://www.psychotactics.com http://www.psychotactics.com/dc ===== / 00:00:20 Introduction: Biryani Disaster? / 00:02:36 Table of Contents / 00:03:14 Part 1: The Root of Confidence / 00:08:14 Part 2: Getting Confidence Back / 00:12:59 Part 3: Confidence is a Rechargable Battery / 00:16:01 Summary / 00:18:25 Announcements: Book on Pricing + US Workshop-InfoProducts ===== Transcript: There are lots of things that I like doing: dancing, painting, cartooning, but one of the things I like the most is cooking.   Of course I invite people over to dinner. On this evening I'd invited one of my friends and I was making this very

It may seem like article writing is very hard. And it is. Good writing needs structure, it needs skill and it needs one more thing: input. Without input, nothing happens. So where do we get this input? And why bother with bad input? Finally, what if you don't like audio learning? Can't you just stick to books? Knowing these answers can dramatically change the way you approach article writing. And yes, make you a better writer. For more, go to http://www.psychotactics.com For the fun workshop: http://www.psychotactics.com/dc For the Story Telling Product: http://www.psychotactics.com/story --------- Hi, this is Sean D'Souza from Psychotactics.com and you're listening to The Three Month Vacation podcast. This podcast isn't some magic trick about working less. Instead, it's about how to really enjoy your work and enjoy your vacation time.                         Imagine you go to the café and you're sitting there and the barista is making this fabulous coffee. The machine is superb, the barista has just won

Is the 10,000 hours principle true? And if it's true, what are your chances of success? And what are the biggest flaw? How do you take the concept of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hours story (He took it from a K.Anders Ericsson study) and reduce the number of hours? Is talent really attainable in fewer hours?   Have you ever watched a 16-year-old go for a driving test? He probably practices for two or three weeks, off and on, and then after that, he drives. Now, imagine they changed the rules of the driving test. Imagine they said that you needed 10,000 hours to drive. How many of us would be on the roads today? Several years ago, best-selling author Malcom Gladwell wrote a book called “Outliers”. Within that book, there was this concept of 10,000 hours, and the concept was very simple. It said that if you wanted to be exceedingly good at something, you needed to spend at least 10,000 hours. As you can quite quickly calculate, that’s about 10 years of very had work or 5 years of extremely hard work. The int

If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing 70% right. You can always come back to do the 20% later. Yes, read it again, and no, the math isn’t wrong. If you’re going to build a website, a 70% effort is fine. If you’re going to do a presentation a 70% effort is fine. If you’re going to bake a cake, for that matter…do you need all the ingredients? The perfect cake? With all the perfecto ingredients? Or the cake with ’70%’ of the ingredients? Let's find out what the 70% principle is all about shall we? ==== LINKS: To subscribe: http://www.psychotactics.com To get to that amazing workshop: http://www.psychotactics.com/dc Storytelling? You want stories? http://www.psychotactics.com/story To subscribe to this podcast: http://www.psychotactics.com/magic ====  Hi, this is Sean D'Souza from psychotactics.com and you're listening to the Three Month Vacation Podcast. This podcast isn't some magic trick about working less. Instead, it's about how to really enjoy your work and enjoy your vacation time.  I was sitting in t

Clients aren't always keen to accept our ideas?no matter how brilliant or workable. And we have the same problem with product or services. The resistance is much too high and we struggle to get things moving. So how do we overcome this resistance from clients? How do we overcome the objections? / / 00:00:20 Introduction / 00:03:12 Part 1: Creating Expertise On Your Site / 00:04:48 Part 2: Pointing Clients To Existing Material / 00:06:48 Part 3: The Power of Demonstration / 00:11:33 Wrap Up + Information Products Workshop: Washington D.C.   I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the story of the white pants of Sara Blakely. Sara’s product was an undergarment. It smoothed out the contours of a woman’s body making your clothes more flattering, more comfortable but Sara was not able to sell the product. Yet as the legend goes she was at the store at Neiman Marcus in Dallas and she was wearing these form fitting white pants. She invited the buyer to join her in the lady’s room. At this very unusual place that Sara pro

For most of us life is about work, work and more work. And no matter whether you have a small business, are in the online marketing space or in consulting, you feel rushed and hassled. This podcast is about how to slow down using the three concepts of "meditation, relaxation and vacation".   Sean:Hi. This is Sean D’Souza from Psychotactics.com, and you’re listening to the Three-Month Vacation Podcast. This podcast isn’t some magic trick about working less. Instead, it’s about how to really enjoy you work and enjoy your vacation time. Did you know that “medication” sounds a lot like “meditation”? Well, I didn’t know that, and I’ve been playing around with it in my head, “Medication, meditation. Medication, medication, meditation.”   When we talk about the three-month vacation, it’s very easy to just think of going away; but as you know, we don’t have to leave the desk to go away. We could just be here. Should we go away, or should we stay? Do we really have to choose? As you know, it’s summer in December here

Clients can be great?or monsters! And once you have a client who's a monster, it's easy to blame them for all the issues. Often, the problem lies with us. We don't put things in place, in advance, and then get into all sorts of trouble.   To get hidden goodies, go to http://www.psychotactics.com/magic To also get the coolest headline report on "why headlines fail", go to http://www.psychotactics.com TimeStamps 00:00:20 Start 00:01:35 The Riot Act 00:01:56 Part 1: The Barrier 00:06:57 Part 2: Your Philosophy 00:12:20 Part 3: Firing the Client 00:14:25 Summary 00:16:08 Your Action Plan 00:16:30 Final Comments + Psychotactics Workshop  Transcript Sean D'Souza:The year was 1998, I think 1999, and I had a massive headache. The reason for my headache was that I wasn’t being paid on time. Just to get paid, I had to follow up several times and then I was lucky if I got the full amount. These are clients that drive you crazy and often the question is, what are you going to do with clients like these? Whose fault is i

Whether you run an online or offline business, there's a point where the business will take control of you. And then it doesn't let go. All those marketing strategies and "four-hour workweek" formulas are totally useless. So what works? And why does it work? Here are three core steps that will get you out of the muck and back on dry land. And yes, on the road to the three month vacation.   00:00:00 Introduction: Getting More Control in Business 00:02:22 Element 1: Learning Core Skills 00:06:44 Element 2: Flying Solo is a Problem 00:12:19 Element 3: Input and Output 00:18:02 Summary 00:19:35 Ending Notes    ===== Sean D'Souza:Hi, this is Sean D'Souza from Psychotactics.com, and you're listening to the Three Month Vacation Podcast. This podcast isn't some magic trick about working less. Instead, it's about how to really enjoy your work and enjoy your vacation time.  If you go to a restaurant, just about any restaurant, and if you go to sit down you would notice that some days the restaurant is absolutely full a

Getting things done isn't as easy as it looks. So what gets in our way when we run our small businesses? Do we simply run out of ideas? The Three Month Vacation Podcast examines how to get out of your own way and get your online?or offline business working smoothly. The key to getting things done is the trigger. How do you create and sustain that trigger in your small business? To get hidden goodies, go to http://www.psychotactics.com/magic To also get the coolest headline report on "why headlines fail", go to http://www.psychotactics.com Time Stamps: 00:00:20 Getting Things Done: 00:02:08 How Do We Make The Trigger Work? 00:04:03 Table of Contents 00:04:24 How To Activate The Trigger 00:09:29 How The Trigger Builds Momentum 00:14:33 Summary 00:17:47 Final Transcript: When I was little my uncle gave me a game. It was called Snoopy Tennis and it was a little console, a video game from Nintendo. All you had to do was play tennis. Lucy from Peanuts and Charlie Brown from Peanuts as well, they would hit the ball

When we set about creating a new product or service, we look for a catchphrase. And while a catchphrase or slogan is very useful, it's not a lot of use when it comes to driving home our uniqueness or positioning. So how do we create that USP or uniqueness? The best way to go about this exercise is to avoid the line completely, because really, your clients can't remember it any way. What you need to focus on, is the story. But how do you create this story line? What's the secret link between storytelling and uniqueness?  ---------- Time Stamps 00:00:20 Uniqueness and Story: Introduction 00:02:11 Table of Contents 00:02:25 Element 1: How The Story Helps in Uniqueness 00:07:57 Element 2: How To Create The Story-Emperor 00:11:40 Example: Psychotactics Article Writing Course 00:14:39 Example: Golden Moon Tea 00:16:19 Element 3: Why Is the Story More Important Than The Slogan? 00:19:01 Summary 00:20:25 Final Resources + Goodies   ---- Speaker 1:Hi, this is Sean D'Souza from Psychotactics.com and you're listening to

So you're new. No one knows you from a bar of soap. And everything that needs to be said has already been said before. Whether you're in online marketing, health and fitness, or just about any small business, it's been done. Or has it? Why would customers continue to seek you out even if you're seemingly a nobody. It's because customers don't necessarily seek out just a name. Instead they seek out a voice; a system; and the way you explain that system. =======  Time Stamps:   00:00:20 Introduction 00:01:31 Table of Contents 00:01:57 Element 1: Your Voice Matters 00:06:39 Element 2: The System That You Follow 00:12:41 Element 3: Your Examples 00:16:40 Summary 00:19:52 Action Plan: The ONE Thing 00:20:42 Final Statements Including Info-Product Workshop in Washington D.C. + Goodies ======== Transcript Sean: One of the biggest things that we seem to battle with is our own minds. It doesn't matter how good we are or how good we get, there is always this battle in our own minds. We always wonder about the things t

When you're a small business, you have what seems like a terrible choice: tactics or strategy. But do you really have to choose? How do online or offline strategies differ from tactics? Can you get by on marketing tactics alone? There is a difference and this podcast shows you how to not just tell the difference, but profit from it. To get hidden goodies, go to: http://www.psychotactics.com/magic To also get the coolest headline report on "why headlines fail", go to: http://www.psychotactics.com ===== Time Stamps:   00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:44 The Difference Between Strategy And Tactics 00:06:59 Strategy Leads to More Stress 00:08:39 How to Execute Tactics and Strategy 00:12:27 Summary 00:13:33 Action Plan 00:14:51 Final Notes. ===== Transcript  Sean D.: Hi this is Sean D'Souza, from Psychotactics.com and you're listening to the three month vacation podcast. This podcast isn't some magic trick about working less. Instead it's about how to really enjoy your work and enjoy your vacation time. It's the new y

What's the secret to getting results? Amazingly it's not some online marketing trick or strategy. It's just plain old follow up. But how do you follow up? And how can you have a marketing strategy—especially for your small business? In this episode of the Three Month Vacation from Psychotactics, you learn exactly how to follow up to get results. To get hidden goodies, go to http://www.psychotactics.com/magic To also get the coolest headline report on "why headlines fail", go to http://www.psychotactics.com Time Stamps 00:00:00 Introduction-My Story With Compaq 00:03:07 Table of Contents 00:04:09 Topic 1: Education and Sales to Follow Up 00:09:04 Topic 2: How Often Should You Follow Up 00:13:16 Topic 3: How Do Amazon and Apple Follow Up? 00:16:21 Summary 00:17:48 Final Details ====  Transcript Sean D'Souza:I've not always lived in New Zealand. I lived in Mumbai, India for a long time and back then, I used to be a cartoonist. I wasn't so much into marketing or not into marketing at all. Even as I say that, som

The bikini concept or bikini principle works on a simple idea. That by giving away 90% of the concept, and keeping 10%, the attraction factor is just as strong, if not twice as strong. And yes, what the bikini didn't reveal, was the part the audience most want, and was the part they were willing to pay for. The same applies to your information products, webinars, workshops and yes, presentations.  To find more podcast options, go to http://www.psychotactics.com/magic To get a short, yet beautiful headline report on "Why Headlines Fail", go to http://www.psychotactics.com ----------------------- Time Stamp 00:00:20 Introduction: Bikini Principle 00:05:33 How The Brain Audit Workshop Helped 00:07:57 What You Can Give Away And What You Can Sell 00:09:20 Summary 00:11:04 Action Plan   --------------- Transcript   It's hard to think of a bikini when you are in a classroom and you're giving a speech and then someone asks you a question, but that's exactly what happened and how we came upon what we call the bikini p