The bold young direct marketing consultant and copywriter who gets results!

My father-in-law retired a couple of years back. Since then, he’s been building a retirement house on a lake in Nebraska. (Hold the jokes — yes, there are lakes in Nebraska!)

The winter months get him down a bit though.

Because the snow and cold weather make it hard to work. Especially when a load of snow gets dumped on the Midwest. And, even when he can get out to the house to do some work, invariably there’s something he needs to do that he can’t because of the inclement conditions.

The winter takes away his momentum. Or — as he calls it — his “Mo.”

Yet in the summer months, when the weather is nicer, he’s got a truckload of “Mo.”

He’s almost single-handedly built an entire five-bedroom house, in just a couple of summers. Sure, he could have had it finished in a single summer contracting a whole team of workers. But this is just him, his “Mo,” and some hard work. And the house is beautiful. Top-notch craftsmanship, too.

And, each summer as he works on it (I think it’ll be done this summer), it undergoes an incredible transformation, thanks to his “Mo” and his hard work. He accomplishes more than you’d imagine one person could!

What could you be building with “Mo”?

What my father-in-law does on his lake house during the summer is nothing short of a feat of human nature. And, it’s something you can do in your spare-time biz as well.

If you know how to take advantage of “Mo.”

We’ve all got it in us. It’s part of our human nature. It’s the ability to leverage what we’re doing now, the successes we’re experiencing, and take it to the next level. To keep working and working, and building toward our goal. And, as we do the work, finish more tasks, accomplish more goals, and experience more positive results, we gain more power to continue doing what we’re doing. Goals build on goals. Results build on results. Incredible things are accomplished!

That’s “Mo.”

Let’s say you’ve started up your spare-time self-publishing biz, and you’re starting to have good sales on one of your products. Here’s how you can take advantage of that “Mo.” Develop a product along the same lines. Something that will be of value to the people who bought your first product. Then you can offer your new product to people who bought the previous one, and a large percentage will buy the new product, too.

Or, maybe you’ve been growing your resume writing business, and have a few happy clients who’ve landed new jobs and started new careers thanks to your resume writing. Ask those happy clients which of their friends, relatives, and colleagues are looking to take the next steps in their careers, and ask to be introduced. That’s “Mo,” too.

Maybe you’re building your Money-Making Website and have started to get decent traffic. How about putting links on your highest-traffic pages (or all of them) allowing people to share the content on various Social Media platforms? This could cause a significant bump in traffic, thanks to the visitors who are already coming to your site. Good use of “Mo,” if you ask me!

It just takes some creativity to figure out how to take full advantage of your “Mo” in your biz.

How to find your most powerful “Mo”

Take a look at what you’ve been doing in the past three or six months that has given you the most powerful results. What was it about it that you think gave you the strong results? How can you repeat or leverage it to get more results like what you’ve been getting?

Spend some time with a pen and paper, brainstorming different ways to get strong results by doing something similar.

I don’t know exactly what it will be for you. Only you can know. In fact, you probably already know, deep down, what exactly you need to do to take advantage of your “Mo” that’s been building recently.

Now do it. And keep doing it. And keep finding ways to leverage your “Mo.”

That’s how you’re going to keep creating the incredible results you want. That’s how you’ll look back one day in the not-too-distant future and say, “Wow, look what I’ve accomplished.”

You have “Mo” in you. Just use it!

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/.

You’ve heard it before.

Effective marketing and advertising is “Sales in Print” or “Sales Multiplied.”

That’s true to a degree. It’s better to look at marketing as a form of sales that quickly reaches the mass millions, rather than as entertainment or art.

Looking at marketing as sales means you emphasize things like effectively grabbing a prospect’s attention, qualifying them and building their interest, building their desire for benefits on top of that, then closing the sale.

Simply put, it’s selling in print (or on the radio, or on TV, or the Internet, etc.).

Following that formula generates sales. It gets the job done. Your business grows, and you’re happy.

But there’s something missing. Something that could really make you rethink “How high is high?” when it comes to your sales and profits.

That’s education. Educating your prospects and your customers without thought of reimbursement. Helping them improve their lives, before you ask anything of them.

Caring for your customers. Putting their dreams, desires, and destiny first. Helping them break through and overcome their fears, frustrations, and failures. All without expectation of gain.

It may sound strange, but this form of selflessness — or focus on your customer’s needs instead of yours — may be the most selfish thing you could do. They’ll appreciate your actions, and reward you with a loyalty you’ll never get by just focusing on your sales.

So look at how you approach your business, your life. Are you putting others needs before your own? What are you doing right now to help others who may (or may not) eventually be able to help you — but without any expectation that they will?

For me, that’s partly what this blog is. A way to help you. To give you real profitable advice that you can apply. Sure I’ll mention things I’m doing and ways you can get more by doing business with me.

But first and foremost (this is a reminder to myself and a promise to you) this blog is here for me to give to you.

I quit my job last Friday. Good pay, great friends, selling a cool product, and working in a great environment. Even so, it was finally time to strike out on my own.

Scary? You bet. Even though I have a bunch of freelance work (Spare-Time Biz Success included) plus my spare-time gigs in the pipeline, it’ll be the first time in my adult life without a consistent paycheck coming in.

And, my wife’s still a student — finishing her Ph.D. — so her income is nowhere near enough to live on. Won’t be much better next year either as she’ll be on an internship.

Plus, we have a nine-month-old son at home. This means both added expenses we’ve never dealt with before, and a tremendous sense of responsibility.

In short, strong reasons why I should NOT be striking out on my own right now.

The fear is overwhelming

There are tons of what-ifs that should be paralyzing me with fear right now.

“What if I lose all my clients and my family’s income with them?”

“What if my spare-time income dries up, too?”

“What if something terrible happens and I’m unable to work?”

“What if … ?”

“What if … ?”

“What if … ?”

I could go on for days. And, the more I go on, the more fear builds and builds and builds. And really, that fear could easily paralyze me and send me groveling back to my old employer, admitting defeat, and heading back to the 9-to-5 lifestyle that “should” make me happy.

Yet, I choose to act anyway.

Do I feel the fear that all those what-ifs raise? Sure. I do. Sometimes it’s powerful. Gets me right down in the gut. My heart starts racing. It’s hard to breathe.

Yet, I’m doing it anyway. I’ve quit my job and I’m working for myself full-time — both as a freelance copywriter and jack-of-many-spare-time-trades. Because there’s a deeper truth in play.

The truth driving me to feel fear and act anyway is knowing that it takes action to spur results. Sometimes dramatic action. If you want to create the life you desire, you need to start creating. You need to DO something.

Maybe your something is quitting your job to start freelancing full-time.

Maybe it’s starting your spare-time resume writing or self-publishing business. Maybe starting a Money-Making Website. Maybe stepping on stage for your first public-speaking gig. Maybe picking up the phone to call a potential client. Or, maybe just turning in work you just poured your heart and soul into with the hope that 1) your client will love it, and 2) it will generate sufficient sales to be called a success.

I don’t know what your something is. I just know you need to do it.

This is how you get ahead

It doesn’t take a success guru to tell you that you create results by acting in the face of fear. Prove it for yourself. Take one thing you’ve been holding back on because of fear, and take a step toward accomplishing it today.

Today.

Not tomorrow. Not soon.

Today. Now.

Feel the same fear you’ve been feeling, then take action anyway.

Don’t bother yourself with results either. Right now, your primary concern is taking action in the face of fear. Then, once you’ve taken action on one thing, take action on another. And another. And another. Let the determination build and build. You will feel the fear, and do it anyway.

Pretty soon it becomes a habit. Feel the fear, do it anyway.

As far as I know, there’s nothing that will take away fear, short of having the fear center of your brain removed. The good news is that it’s okay to feel fear. You just act anyway.

This is how everyone who has done anything big in their life has done it. Facing fear, one day at a time. And acting anyway.

This is how you can do big things in your life.

Again, I challenge you. Recognize the one thing in your life right now that you’re not doing because of fear. And do it anyway. Today. Now.

Feel free to leave your comment here after you’ve taken action, to tell the world how it feels.

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/.