A friend of mine sent me a link to this video. It gives us a sense of what danger we’re really in on a national level with regards to our debt and spending situation. If I were to do this myself as a taxpayer, I’d be headed straight for bankruptcy court. Yet the federal government keeps building the house of cards, and telling us to keep the windows shut.

Buy silver (and gold) — lots of it.

I’m pissed.  What in theory could have been a good thing — cost controls on health insurance, especially for small business — has turned into an absolute nightmare.

I’m sorry if you’ve come looking for another article on marketing and advertising — you’re not going to find it here.  In fact, this may be the first of many articles that discuss finance, politics, and the corruption of The American Dream as seen from the perspective of a modern entrepreneur.

It’s a big shift for me — all I’ve written about for years now is marketing, advertising, and entrepreneurship, and I’ve stayed well clear of the political realm.  But there’s just too much going on right now for me to sit silent, and too much for you to ignore it.

So mark this as my first of many articles on these topics.  And this first one is a doozy.

Starting in 2012, Uncle Sam is putting a choke hold on US Small Businesses.  Remember when Obamacare was going through, how no member of congress actually admitted to having read the entire legislation?  At 2,409 pages, of course they’re not going to read it!  It’s only going to become LAW and have an effect on the lives of every American.  Why the bleep should they READ it?

Well as the legislation is being combed through for the purposes of implementation, some nasty secrets are coming out.  And this is just one of them.

Let me quote CNN on the details:

Section 9006 of the health care bill — just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document — mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year.

The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year.

(from http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/05/smallbusiness/1099_health_care_tax_change/)

I came across this bit of news from the gold bugs — who have figured out that this means every precious metals transaction over $600 will now be tracked by Uncle Sam.   (Gold, silver, and other precious metals are one of the few private investments left…  For now.)  With tracking, Uncle Sam knows where the gold is.  Which makes confiscation of physical gold much easier.  And for those of you who think, “Not my government,” you only need to look back to 1933 and FDR’s Executive Order 6102 “forbidding the Hoarding of Gold Coin, Gold Bullion, and Gold Certificates” by U.S. citizens.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102)  It could happen again.  We’re getting off track though…

The implications for sole proprietors, home office workers, freelancers, and other small businesses of these new 1099 rules are tremendous.

While a major corporation can hire a few more accountants to churn out 1099s as fast as they blow cash, small businesses (the heart of the US economy) can’t afford to waste time mired in more government paperwork.  (Just think: your local locksmith will have to file a 1099 for the gas station they buy more than $600 worth of gas from; entrepreneurs attending trade shows will have to file 1099s on the show’s producer plus multiple vendors; direct mailers will even have to file 1099s on USPS on the postage they buy!)

Personally, every minute I spend filling out paperwork for Uncle Sam is a minute I can’t spend earning an income.  And I suppose I could hire out the task, but as a small business this is an undue burden — it stifles productivity and hampers commerce.

The good thing is how quickly politicians on both sides of the aisle are working against this particular item.  Representative Daniel E. Lungren of California has introduced a bill to counter the new 1099 rules, H. R. 5141, “to repeal the expansion of information reporting requirements for payments of $600 or more to corporations, and for other purposes.”  And he’s one of many speaking out against it.

But bullheaded politicians bent on re-election over all else are standing firm against such efforts.

Because the current administration — and by that I mean the executive branch down through the powers that be in congress — have made this health care legislation their “last stand,” they’re not ready to budge on any legislation to modify it.  No matter how counter-productive a line item may be, they see the entire legislation as a house of cards where if just one card is removed, the whole structure will fall.

So how likely is it that Section 9006 — the 1099 debacle — will be repealed?  Well, I don’t know.  We’ll have to wait and see.  Though it’s unlikely we’ll see any real action before the November elections, and if the current administration stays in power it’s unlikely we’ll see it repealed before the 2012 implementation date.  So this may be a new burden your business will have to deal with — Uncle Sam’s strangle hold on your small business.

I’ll wrap this up with an idea an associate of mine had.  Ron Paul’s run for president was great in helping people become aware of Libertarianism.  But what we really need are a large number of Libertarian lawmakers on Capital Hill.  What if instead of supporting a national candidate for president, Libertarians instead made it a point to get representation in Congress, starting with the highest-probability districts?  Increase the voices calling for less government meddling at home and abroad, support of individual freedoms, and support for small business (and cutting loose our government from its indentured servitude to Wall Street and the biggest of big businesses).  It’d take a while, but it may start to change things for the better.  Food for thought.

Until next time,

Roy Furr

I got a question from a reader recently.  He wanted to know “How do you differentiate yourself in a saturated market?”

Seems like with the internet and everybody being connected to everybody (including your customers being a couple clicks away from all your competitors) this question is more important than ever.

I could give a much longer, more complex answer around proof and credibility, though for that discussion I’ll refer you at the end of this article to another article I wrote last year.  (That means read this article first!)

When it comes to differentiation, I recommend three major strategies.

One, offer something different.

Okay, so this is probably the single easiest, quickest way to differentiate yourself in any market — regardless of how saturated it is.  I’m going to use pizza as an example because, well, I like pizza.  And I have a couple examples from the industry.

First is the famous Domino’s pizza example.  Domino’s started as a corner pizza shop much like any other corner pizza shop.  Not much to distinguish it in a world of corner pizza shops.  Definitely not better pizza.  Not a fancier atmosphere.  Not better service.  It was a corner pizza shop.

Then, Tom Monaghan had a bright idea.  He realized customers liked their pizza delivered fast.  Reliably fast.  It didn’t matter that the pizza wasn’t the best.  It didn’t matter that other elements of the pizza buying experience may have been lacking.  Fast, fresh, hot pizza and people were happy.

So he came up with the most profitable 10 words in the history of the pizza business:

“Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed.”

No more, no less.  And importantly, nobody else was doing it.  And he built Domino’s into the world’s largest pizza delivery franchisor (and for a long time the most recognized name in pizza) in very short order on the back of that differentiated offer.  (Eventually some trouble came of this promise so now they’ve dropped the offer for something much weaker…  And Domino’s is not what it once was as a result…  Though that doesn’t diminish the power of this lesson.)

My second pizza example.  Little Caesars.  Here’s how they’ve won a lot of business from me over the last few years, even though I don’t particularly like their pizza.

“$5 Hot and Ready Pizza.”  I show up, I say “Pepperoni” or “Cheese,” and I get the pizza from the little warming box behind the counter onto the counter in seconds.  I pay $5 and I’m walking out of the store with the pizza.  Round trip from home to pizza store to home again is under 15 minutes.

And it’s cheap.  Even being reasonably successful I’ve stayed pretty spendthrift — and $5 pizza keeps me coming back.  (Compare that to the $15+ I spent last weekend on a pizza I really like…  And I feel like I have to go back to Little Caesars for my next trip just because I spent too much last time!)

I go back to Little Caesars again and again because they offer $5 pizza that’s guaranteed to be hot (note, not fresh) and ready for me when I walk in the door.  And as far as I know there’s nobody else in the industry doing the same thing.

These are both great examples of offering something to your customers that nobody else does.  Creating a packaged product or service that your competitors are unwilling or unable to match.  And then riding that wave as long as it continues to bring in sales and customers profitably.

What can you offer that your competitors can’t or won’t?  Six minutes, six months or more spent thinking of this could pay many dividends, as it obviously did with Domino’s and with Little Caesars.

Two, be different.

This is a fundamental shift in what you do.  A long-time client of mine is a good example of this in action — what you could aspire to.

A brief description of his industry is that it’s selling career training to techno-geeks.  People who work on computers.  Everyone else in the industry (his competitors) goes for the packaged, professional look.  And they typically have long delivery times, a “salesy” sales staff, and focus on “corporate” appeal.

Not my client.  From the beginning he approached it differently.  He treated every customer like they were a friend, not a credit card transaction.  So his training is different — it’s like having your smart friend sitting down next to you and explaining the topic in language you can understand.  His service is different — 2-day delivery is standard, overnight is optional, and all orders ship same day if possible.  And all sales staff are taught to be consultative for the most part, and friend-like in all follow-up.

This resulted in the company going from nothing to one of the most recognized names in the business in under a decade, and knocking many of the “big boys” in the industry funded by old publishing money off their high horses.

These are great examples of ways you can “be different.”  I like them because they transform the interactions with the customers from transactional to “How can I serve you as a person?”  (Sometimes the result of this question is referring the customer to a competitor or complimentary product.)

This “How can I help you as a person?” is a radical question.  And a question most merchants are unwilling — even afraid — to ask.  Because it may not serve you in the near term.  Though as my client found out it can lead to more loyal customers, and customers who not only come back to you over and over again (exclusively or not), but also customers who refer their friends and associates to you en masse with glowing recommendations.

So how can you be different and get noticed?  Think about your IDEAL customer experience.  How you’d like to be treated.  And work on rearranging your business to create that experience for your customers.  Trust me, they’ll take note.

Three, educate more.

I like this one.  Perhaps because it leads to more business for me.  (Grin.)

Most competitors in most markets do not educate their customers or prospects.  They sell.  The only thing they do that even comes close to educating customers is educating them on new opportunities to buy.  This does not connect with customers, and it does not differentiate you as a merchant.

Before I talk about a couple ways to differentiate yourself through customer education, a caveat.  Educating can be a double-edged sword.  You think you’re doing it right because you’re giving the customer all the possible information they could need.  Yet you quickly find they’re just not responding.  That doesn’t mean the strategy is wrong, it probably means the implementation is off.

Two ways to ensure your customer education will lead to more sales.

First, one lesson per communication.  Notice this entire article is dedicated to teaching you how to differentiate yourself.  Sure, there are subtopics.  Yet it all comes back to differentiating yourself.  Keep each communication focused around one idea — one lesson — and it’ll have the biggest impact.

Second, have a personality.  Just because you always have a new lesson to teach doesn’t mean people will stick with you.  In fact, customers will stay with someone they like yet who is educating less rather than the person who educates more yet in a bland or boring way.  So be sure you’re making your personality shine and even entertaining a little along with educating and selling.

Now on to types of education that will lead to more sales.

Online, it’s easy.  There are so many forms of media and different technologies that allow you to stay in constant contact with your customers at a very low cost.

You can start a video blog where customers get to know you and learn about your products, plus where you answer their questions and help them solve problems.  Or if you’re a writer you can do the same thing with a  regular blog or article site.

Autoresponders.  When a potential customer comes to your site interested in what you offer or the problems you solve, offer them a series of free lessons on how to solve their problem.  Deliver them through an automated email service such as Aweber (http://royfurr.aweber.com).  And then continue to follow up with more helpful tips (genuinely helpful, focusing on helping and serving first and sales last and not always).  A good series of autoresponders can start with daily emails for the first 5, 7, 9, or more days, then space out to every couple days, twice weekly, weekly, or even every couple weeks.  I have even poorly-put-together autoresponder sequences that are converting 25% of subscribers into buyers over a 3-4 month period (which reminds me, I need to work on that!).

You can also put together a newsletter where you regularly (monthly, weekly, even daily) send out articles that are helpful and of service to your readers.  I consult with multiple divisions of a 9-figure publishing company that uses this type of newsletter as one of two core elements of its online marketing strategy and has done VERY well with this approach.

Offline many of the same strategies apply, though the cost difference is significant.  I like to use offline media to drive customers online, and online media to get offline contact information for customers.  Reaching customers through these multiple media can lead to a multiplication of average customer value.

And here’s something else.  How to differentiate yourself further by combining a unique offer with customer education.  A very easy way to offer something your competitor doesn’t is by creating an educational supplement to the product or service you’re selling.

If you’re a service business, why not write the book on it?

So you clean carpets?  Write at least a booklet, if not a full book on how to keep your carpets clean between professional cleanings.  Or hire someone to write it for you.

If you’re a financial planner specializing in helping newly-successful entrepreneurs manage their new wealth and income, your book can be “How to turn your new financial success into a lifelong income stream and the ultimate financial independence.”

Sell products?  Let’s look at both ends of the spectrum.

With an utterly simple product like Pyrex storage containers (like you may take your lunch to the office in) you could offer a recipe book specifically designed for the different sizes of containers — so customers can cook delicious lunches easily, and have them ready to grab and go in the morning on the way out the door.

Or let’s say you sell high-end industrial robots to manufacturers, like an associate of mine did for a few years.  You could include in the sale price a week-long training session for your client’s maintenance team and other employees on proper ongoing care of the robots to ensure minimized downtime and service calls.

Offer education as a supplement to your product and all of a sudden you’re in a league of your own.  You’re educating more, and you’re offering something your competitors don’t (and often won’t go to the trouble of matching).

So those are just a few strategies for differentiating yourself in a saturated market.  I hope they help!

To your success,

Roy

P.S. — Here’s that article I promised on proof and credibility.  It’s specifically talking to people who are doing Self-Publishing, though the lessons apply pretty much across the board regardless of industry.  http://www.awaionline.com/2009/10/build-self-publishing-credibility/

Why Ad Agencies, Ad Sales Reps, And Almost Everyone Else In Advertising And Marketing Hides From You The Actual Return On Your Advertising And Marketing Investment… And What You Can Do About It

Here’s a little dirt on the Advertising and Marketing industries from an insider.

This may be revolting to you if you’re a self-made successful business owner who’s invested a bit before in advertising and marketing, and wondered why it didn’t seem to work.  Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Here’s the scoop.  Most people in the advertising and marketing industries don’t want you to know if your investment makes money.  Some go so far as to actively hide it from you.  Either it’s a case of the blind leading the blind, or they’ve pulled the wool over your eyes.

• If you’ve ever heard the justification, “They have to see your advertisement 12 times before they respond…” you may be a victim.

• If your advertising sales person tells you how many people will see your ad, as opposed to how many orders it will generate… you may be a victim.

• If your ad agency tells you they’re going to create a commercial that “entertains” people because “people don’t want to be sold to…” you may be a victim.

This is why this happens.  You see, most people in the Advertising and Marketing industries don’t make their money when you make money.  In fact, just the opposite.  They make money when you spend money.

So when you run your hip new commercial with every local TV station, the ad agency gets their cut of your “spend” and they make money.

When you insert the biggest, most colorful, prettiest ad in the Yellow Pages, the sales rep gets his fat commission check.

When you run newspaper ads week after week after week, the ad sales rep who handles your account eats steak dinners on you.

Notice, none of these rely on you actually making sales as a direct result of running the advertising.  They only rely on you spending more money.

So it could be said most people in the Advertising and Marketing industry are actually just there to make you spend money (and to make you feel good about doing so with concepts like “branding” and “building your corporate image”).

They’re not actually there to make you money.

So they do things like focus on design and white space instead of sales message.  On logos and fonts, instead of understanding what it takes to compel a prospect to do business with you.  On catchy tag lines instead of creating an offer that demands someone pick up the phone and call right now to order.

Then they tell you, “You can’t really measure image.”

Hogwash.

When you spend a dollar on advertising and marketing, you should be able to know you’re going to get that dollar back in return, and it better bring friends.

That’s the type of advertising and marketing I create.  I create advertising and marketing that aims to get you a positive and sometimes astounding return on investment, directly traceable to the advertising and marketing I created for you.

And I get paid when you make money, instead of when you spend it.

The way I work is I accept a fee up front in exchange for the creation of an advertisement or marketing campaign I believe is most likely to generate a significant return on your investment.  This is my “keep the lights on” money.  The way I get rich is when my advertising works, my clients pay me a small portion of every dollar generated as a direct result of my advertising.

In short, I make my real money when you make money.

That’s the way I think everyone in Advertising and Marketing should work, and that’s the type of people I’d like to do business with as a successful self-made business owner.  So that’s how I approach my business, too.

Every day it seems like someone else is declaring long copy doesn’t work — or that it’s stopped working… That attention spans are fractured, and nobody reads long sales letters anymore.

“My sales message needs to be short, because my customers don’t want to read all that. Maybe we could do video… But… No long sales letter they have to READ.”

Really? So long sales letters are dead now, in the post-MTV, YouTube generation?

NO WAY! With one important caveat…

First. Long sales letters are far from dead. My client’s appears-to-be-record-breaking launch this week was driven by a short email that told almost nothing about the product, followed by a 14-page hard-hitting sales letter. The email itself didn’t make any sales, I guarantee that. The sales letter did.

The long sales letter is what did the work. The long sales letter made the sales. Why? Because it takes a long sales letter to make a full sales argument that grabs the prospect’s attention, gets them interested in the opportunity you’re offering them, stokes the fire of their desire, and demands they don’t do anything else with their day before they take action and hand over their hard-earned money.

The long sales letter makes the sale.

Here’s my caveat. If your sales letter sucks, yeah, it’s dead. If it doesn’t focus from start to finish on the prospect and the benefits they’ll receive by responding, it’s a no-go. If it’s not about THEM, they won’t read. Listen, people read news, books, novels, and tons of other content every day — in the dozens or even hundreds of pages — because it is somehow enriching their life.

Create a sales message that they have to read because it’s compelling and laser-targeted to what your prospects dream of and desire, that saves them from their frustrations and failures, and you’ll hook ‘em and have them reading beginning to end… And responding with an order.

That type of long sales letter is alive and well. And will never die.

Just got an email from a client (name withheld) who launched a product using my copy yesterday. One email plus an online sales letter … With no “hot list,” no launch sequence, no big hoopla leading up to the launch — just one email leading to an online sales letter… And they have generated over $13,000 in under 24 hours.

Now that we’ve done the cold launch, we’re going to rev up their marketing machine and we’ll see where this takes us.

Effective sales copy gets results. Add my marketing systems on top of it and we’ll see how high is high.

Request a consultation now if you’d like similar results in your business.

What if you knew the exact Success Factors shared by top performers in all fields, so you could emulate what they do in your own life? How do you think that would shape your destiny?

I do a lot of reading and research into the lives of successful individuals — people who excel in all areas. It’s fascinating to see how they’ve lived their lives. Plus, it helps me as I form a model for how to live mine to the fullest.

In my research, I’ve found a number of Success Factors shared by top performers in all areas — from civic leaders to multimillionaire entrepreneurs, to religious and spiritual leaders and beyond.

Before I give you my list, I want to share a quote with you that I find particularly powerful. You may or may not have seen it before — if you have, read it carefully again to frame the “why” for the rest of this article; if you haven’t, you’ll probably want to read it at least twice.

Here’s the quote, from Marianne Williamson’s book A Return To Love, Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

So why should you be a successful, amazing person? Because it’s who you actually are and who you are expected to be. It’s living out your purpose — your destiny. Each one of us has within us a Love and a Light that we must let shine. By letting our Love and our Light come through in everything we do, we accomplish great things, attract all kinds of wealth (material and immaterial), and share a more bountiful and joyful life with the world and those around us.

Striving to live the Success Factors I list below is not a selfish thing to do — even if it results in the accumulation of tremendous material wealth. Striving to live the Success Factors I list below is about doing great things, so you can give back to the world in the form of inspiration, love, and light, as well as financial and material support.

The Success Factors

1. You have an unshakable belief in yourself. This may be the greatest of all Success Factors. It comes from knowing who you are. You are a remarkable person who is the embodiment of Love and Life. And from this place of knowing, you can have confidence you will accomplish great things. When someone recognizes this in themselves, it’s like light radiates from every cell of their body. Your energy is magnetic. (Incidentally, to live with this recognition does not require you to follow any spiritual or religious tradition — it is present in everyone.) Once you recognize you are great by your very nature — and all things are within your reach — it’s impossible to shake your belief in what you set out to accomplish.
2. You write your own rules. Rules are imposed on us from every direction. From infancy, others tell us how we must live our lives. Top performers recognize and live with these rules on a daily basis — yet when a rule doesn’t make sense, top performers don’t hesitate to break or rewrite it to suit their vision. Nothing is impossible — although sometimes the rules must change drastically to make things happen.
3. You’re always learning and improving. Great people never stop learning and improving themselves. They learn from books. They learn from the news. They learn from talking with people. They learn from observation. They never consider themselves above trying to pick up new knowledge … to open up their perspective and enrich their understanding of the world. Applied to your career, this means always working to develop new skills and master your craft.
4. You connect ideas in new and unique ways. As they’re learning, top performers don’t just file every new insight and idea into its own separate file. They’re always looking for relations and interconnectedness of ideas, in order to see things and understand things in new ways. This is the root of innovation and invention. This is where breakthroughs happen. Every time you learn something new, try taking a quiet moment to let your brain play ‘connect-the-dots’ as you wonder, “How can this be related to something I already know?” Soon this comes naturally, and happens even when you don’t think about it.
5. You’re always moving forward, because that’s what you do. If you want to be a top performer, you must develop near disdain for inaction and sloth. “Onwards and upwards!” is your battle cry. You develop the habit of never stopping moving — even if it’s just your subconscious processing the day’s thoughts and activities and planning tomorrow as you wind down for the evening. This is how small good things snowball into big good things, and you accomplish more.
6. You embrace chaos and uncertainty. When you’re living big — always creating a new and higher answer to “How high is high?” — there will be a lot of chaos and uncertainty in your life. It’s not comfortable. It’s not comfortable to put yourself out there with a new business, or approach a big new client. It’s not comfortable to choose to be a nun who dedicates yourself to serving the poorest of the poor in Calcutta. It’s not comfortable to run for Mayor or Governor or Congress or President. Doing these things is stepping into discomfort, chaos, and uncertainty. It takes practice to become comfortable doing this. And even more practice to embrace it. Yet it’s what top performers do and what you should practice doing, too.
7. You’ll jump in when others won’t. This builds on embracing chaos. Most people are content to live lives of quiet desperation. Because it’s less scary to live small than to do something important. Yet, if you want to create magic in your life … if you want to do something big … if you want to be a somebody instead of a nobody … you have to practice jumping in. Sometimes you’ll find shark-infested waters and you’ll have to skedaddle your little butt up out of the water before you get bitten too hard. Yet more often, you’ll find the water far warmer and more enriching — and waaaay less scary — than you could have ever imagined.
8. You’ll try, and try, and try again. Failure is a fact of life. The final Success Factor common in top performers is the unwillingness to let failure stop them from getting back up and trying again. They fail, and fail again. And, get back up and try, and try again. You can’t let failure get you down. Because just on the other side of one of these roadblocks — on the other side of one of these failures — is the success you’ve been working toward. Why not fail as fast as you can — trying, and trying again — until you get there? Very few will remember your failures … and many will recognize and applaud your success.

So, which of these Success Factors do you have? Which are you working on?

The good news is, they can all be practiced and picked up. In reality, even top performers practice and struggle with living out these Success Factors every day of their lives. There are periods of intense doubt. There are “enlightened” periods where everything seems to be clicking. And there’s everywhere in between. Everyone goes through them.

When the final cards are counted, it’ll be obvious who lived their lives focused on practicing and making habits of these Success Factors, and who gave up when the going got rough. Which will you be?

Don’t read this unless you’re ready for a bit of a bummer … but I promise there will be a payoff at the end, with a useful lesson on how you can get more of what you want in your life.

Why do some people effortlessly attract abundance — wonderful friends, enviable wealth, a lifestyle to dream about — into their lives … while others toil and slave away with little-to-no reward or recognition?

If you’ve read the book or watched the movie The Secret, you’re undoubtedly aware of something called the Law of Attraction.

Put simply, the Law of Attraction states that what you think about — both consciously and unconsciously — creates the life around you.

If you think about how you’re creating lasting wealth for yourself … how amazing people will find you and become your friends … how you’ll live a long and happy life … the Law of Attraction says it’s only a matter of time before these things materialize in your life.

On the other hand, if you’re always thinking about how terrible the world is … how fear and greed and corruption are destroying our society … how you can’t get ahead no matter how hard you try … then according to the Law of Attraction, that negativity will dominate your life.

Is The Law Of Attraction True?

The Law of Attraction is a seductive idea.

You create your reality. Do you want amazing riches? Just create them. Do you want a wonderful spouse? Just attract one. Do you want the world? It’s yours, on a silver platter.

I’ve even heard the story of a woman who was deeply in debt and struggling in all areas of her life, who decided according to the Law of Attraction, she’d be in much better shape if she could just come up with $50,000. Well, guess what … The next day she got a call that her estranged husband had a $50,000 check with her name on it.

Powerful stuff.

But, what if you try it and the Law of Attraction doesn’t work in your life?

The gurus behind the Law of Attraction dismiss this easily, saying it’s your own fault. You have subconscious thoughts sabotaging your success. It’s something you’re doing or thinking that’s causing the problem — because the Law of Attraction is a universal law, like gravity. It just is.

I challenge that assertion … but don’t want to “throw the baby out with the bath water” as they say.

Here’s my take on it:

There may be factors preventing the Law of Attraction from working in ideal ways in your life. These include your brain chemistry, level of intellectual or emotional development, relationships, natural disasters, cultural and political trends, environmental toxins, and essentially the many things that make up the context of your everyday life.

But, all these things don’t mean you’re powerless.

In fact, in recognizing them, you have even more power. Because you can recognize your strengths (and limitations), and grow where you can.

There is a space in your life where the Law of Attraction has all the power the gurus say it does, and maybe more.

Because there is a powerful truth hidden in the Law of Attraction.

You have an incredible force inside you that allows you to CO-create your reality, alongside all the factors I mentioned above and more.

And most of us (myself included), put limits on ourselves that fall far short of what we’re capable of. In fact, most people reading this CAN attract wonderful friends, enviable wealth, and a lifestyle to dream about into their lives, in spite of any weaknesses. From using the Law of Attraction and a little “elbow grease.”

That’s the beauty of living in the time we live in, with the resources at our disposal.

How to Apply This in Your Life

If you want to apply the secret of the Law of Attraction in your life, I encourage you to do so.

Take time to recognize what you really do want. Clear out the negative “don’ts” and limiting beliefs that are sabotaging your success. Picture yourself in a future where you already have what you want. And, move forward with all of this in your mind, acting in a way that helps to create these things in your life.

Remember, too, that action is important. Without taking action toward getting what you desire, you’re playing against the odds. But, if in every waking moment, you’re moving one step closer to what you desire — not matter how small the step — it is only a matter of time before you achieve it.

And, if you run into a roadblock based on a limitation in your life, a roadblock preventing you from getting any closer to your goal along that path, it’s okay. Recognize the roadblock for what it is, and decide if you need to take another route, or revise your goals.

Yet, by creating a vision in your mind of what it is you wish to achieve and attract into your life, and by doing the work to bring that vision to fruition, you can achieve great things.

My Little Law of Attraction Secret

It makes me a little uncomfortable to reveal this in such a public forum, but I’m going to do it anyway because I think it illustrates an important point.

Just under five years ago, with little-to-no knowledge of the Law of Attraction, I started putting a powerful energy out into the world.

I made a promise in front of a few family members that I’d have over one million dollars in assets within 10 years. I had no clue how it would happen. I had no reason to believe it would. But I put it out there, and when questioned, I stuck to the fact that IT WOULD HAPPEN.

 … Even though I don’t have a silver spoon in my mouth. Even though I don’t have an easy way to make myself a millionaire. Even though there is no precedent in my family or in my close circle of friends that says I should be able to make this happen. Even though I have my own little quirks and problems like ADHD that make it more difficult on a day-to-day basis to stay focused on working toward my goal.

Because of all these limitations, I realized I’d have to work harder to make my vision of my future come true.

For one, I recognized that if I want to make this happen, I need to learn how to make a million dollars. So I set out to learn everything I could about sales and marketing, and how other people have made personal fortunes and found financial freedom through industries like self-publishing. I learned that not only is it possible, there are specific models you can follow that give you a high probability of success.

At the same time, I started to meet with and get to know many people who had done it themselves — who had generated over a million dollars in assets for themselves, through whatever means. I asked them about how they did it. What worked for them; what didn’t?

And now I’m working to apply these things in my life.

Am I at a million yet? No, far from it, in fact. But every year since then, my income has risen dramatically — tripling in less than five years, and still growing. I’ve learned a few ways to make passive income, and am expanding those. And, I’ve just started working for myself full-time, to accelerate the rate at which I put these principles into play in my life.

It’s been a lot of work. It’s been hard to balance family, social commitments, and other similar things — although I’ve tried and done at least an okay job of it. And, I’ve had to work my way through my fair share of roadblocks, although I must say it’s been pretty easy so far (knock on wood).

Yet I can see the results building and building. And, it’s just a matter of time before the Law of Attraction does pay off, and because the context of my life is in line with what I want and because I’m working to make it happen, I will reach my goal.

And once I do that (and even in the meantime), I’ll continue to use the secret of the Law of Attraction in my life, thanking my lucky stars every day to be living in a world where I have the privileges of opportunity and freedom that allow me to make it work.

How about you? Are you applying the Law of Attraction in your life, and how is it working? Tell your story as a comment here.

This article appears courtesy of American Writers & Artists Inc.’s (AWAI) Spare-Time Biz Success, a free newsletter that gives you information on the hottest work-at-home opportunities that allow you to make extra money in your spare time and enjoy the financial benefits of a full-time career. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.awaionline.com/signup/spare-time-business/.

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