Jason Brubaker

15 Steps to Start Blogging (So You Can Start Living)

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If you’re ready to start blogging, you’re in the right place. Simply put, blogging involves setting up a site, adding content, attracting visitors, gaining subscribers, selling stuff and scaling up. While that might sound simple, growing a blog into a real business takes time. In order to succeed, you’ll need to develop the discipline to keep going even when it feels like you’re not making progress.

To help you start your blog, I’ve distilled over a decade of my personal blogging experience into a 15 step checklist. These are the same fundamental steps I employ with every project. Hopefully this info will help you avoid my mistakes and accelerate your success.

start blogging

How To Start Blogging

Here is a general overview of steps you can take to start and grow your blog. Keep in mind that some of these steps can be accomplished today, while other steps may take months. Regardless, the best time to start blogging is right now!

Where it makes sense, I included recommendations for helpful software, products and services. In full disclosure, if you click the links and make a purchase, I may receive compensation. (This is called affiliate marketing. And adding affiliate links to your own blog is one of the ways you can make make money online.) If referrals aren’t cool, feel free to ignore the links.

1. Pick Your Overarching Blog Topic: Many people choose a blog topic based on popular trends and not passion. Don’t do this. It may take you many months to grow your blog. And if you don’t love your topic, you won’t be able to fully serve your niche audience. To avoid burnout before you start, choose a blog topic you love.

2. Break Your Blog Topic Into Categories: Once you find your blog topic, your next step is to break your topic into smaller chunks. For example, filmmaking consists of screenwriting, producing, directing, marketing and distribution. By breaking your own niche topic into smaller categories, you will define a framework for your overarching topic. I recommend creating at least five categories.

3. Create 10 Articles For Each Category: After breaking your niche into smaller categories, create at least ten article ideas for each category. This simple exercise will allow you to come up with at least fifty article ideas. Fifty articles will provide you with two articles per week, for the next six months.

4. Choose Blog Platform: Many blogging networks allow you to post blog content for free. But if you’re serious about blogging, I suggest you forgo the free stuff in favor of a blog you own. To do this, you’ll need hosting and a domain name. One company I’ve used (and promote as affiliate) is Bluehost. The hosting packages usually include a domain.

5. Set Up Traffic Tools: One of the most comprehensive traffic tools is  called Google Analytics. The software is free, easy to install and allows you to monitor who’s coming to your website, how long they stay in where visitors exit.

6. Create Your Facebook Account: In order to provide community, at the very least you will want to set up a Facebook page that links to your blog. This page will allow you to interact and build relationships with your audience. Set up a Facebook page here.

7. Create A Twitter Account: One of the easiest ways to get visitors to your blog is to set up a twitter account. Once set up, you will be able to tweet about new articles on your website. In this sense, your twitter followers will click the link and visit your site. Set up a twitter account here.

8. Link Your Blog to Facebook and Twitter: The Internet is nothing more than a series of links. Your goal is to make it easy for someone to find your website. Once your Facebook page and Twitter account is established, you can then set up automatic updates on each page. Any time you publish a new article your Facebook fans and Twitter followers will know.

9. Set Up Email Opt-In: There is an expression Internet marketing that says your money is your list.  Many bloggers make the mistake of relying solely on social networks to manage their list. But as you know, social networks often go out of vogue. So you will want to set up a system whereby you can manage your own email list. Visit our affiliate partners at Aweber to get started.

10. Create Content: It will take search engines a few months to start taking you and your blog seriously. You goal during this time is to continually add content to your blog. You will find this very challenging at first. Keep going! Think of it like a game. If you can write 50 articles over the next two months, you will begin to gain traffic.

11. Sell Ad Space: As  your blog gains popularity, one of the easiest ways to make money is to sell ad space on your blog. With this model, more traffic increases the likelihood that someone will click on the ad. And since most ads are based on Pay-Per-Click, this can generate significant revenue. The downside of selling ad space is you may send targeted visitors away from your blog.

12. Create Affiliate Relationships: If you consistently produce great content, your efforts will result in a massive traffic and a robust mailing list. At this point, you may want to start referring your visitors to products and services that complement your niche. This is called affiliate marketing. One of the easiest places to find affiliate products is clickbank.

13. Create Your Own Products: One of the most profitable steps you can take involves leveraging and re-purposing your content to create your own information products and services. While this is a lot more time consuming than promoting affiliate products, the upside is higher profit margins and creative control.  Additionally, affiliates start working for you!

14. Increase Your Traffic: There are several ways to drive traffic to your website, including online and offline. You can choose to pay for advertising or look for ways to create free traffic. Some examples include press releases, pay-per-click, search engine optimization, banner ads, newsletters, advertising in magazines, guest posting on blogs and sharing ideas on social platforms.

15. Partner With Other Bloggers: Nothing can help you get noticed in the noise faster than a vote of confidence from a blogger already established in your niche. I suggest taking a moment to send an intro email to these folks and ask for an interview. Because you are thinking about ways to promote other bloggers, this will help you get on their radar.

Most people start blogging, write a few articles and then give up. Don’t be like most people. To rise above the noise and grow traffic, you need to start blogging with the goal of publishing useful content (to serve your audience) for six months straight.

7 Little-Known Zoom Hacks (To Change Your Life)

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If you’re looking for Zoom hacks to make social distancing more fun, you’re not alone. In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, Zoom has quickly become the go-to app for socially minded folks who still want to connect. And it’s catching on fast. Over the past few weeks, I’ve participated in Zoom workouts, happy hours, game nights and bible studies… Many with friends and family from all over the world.

To get started, you first need to set up a Zoom account. Like many apps, you’ll have the option to choose between a free plan and a premium plan. The free plan allows you run 45 minute meetings. And if you need more time than that, you’ll have to pay for it. Regardless of the plan you choose, Zoom offers some cool features you can apply immediately.

zoom hacks

7 Little-Known Zoom Hacks

If you decide to use Zoom for your next virtual soiree, here are seven little known Zoom hacks that will change your life… Okay, maybe these hacks won’t change your life. But they might prompt at least one of your friends to ask: “How did you do that?” And in the age of social-distancing, it’s the little things that make a big difference.

1. Change Your Zoom Background: The other morning I logged into my Zoom group workout (that’s a thing) and our coach started laughing because I choose a post apocalyptic background. Can you imagine someone doing a dozen burpees in a virtual inferno? You can now, because burpees are hell. So try a different background each time you log in.

2. Use the Annotation Tool: Zoom has built in annotation tools that allow you to write on the screen. They also have a white board feature. I’m sure the original intent was business related. But depending on your level of creativity (and the amount of booze you consume) you could draw pictures, play games or scribble all over your screen and call it art?

3. Share Your Screen: The other night my friend told me about a funny tweet. Normally he would have to text me a link, and then await my response. But since we were both on Zoom, he was able to share his screen. This allowed for some real time commentary, and kept the conversation energetic. What sorts of weird stuff could you share?

4. Use Gallery View: This isn’t much of a hack. But if you log in to Zoom and choose Gallery View, you’ll feel like you’re in the opening credits of the Brady Bunch TV show. (If you don’t get that reference, Google it.) Just know that this view allows you to see dozens of talking heads all at once. It’s a little weird to get used to, but then again so is every aspect of virtual meet ups.

5. Create A Transcript: Wait? What? Is your next Zoom meeting being recorded? That is an option. And you can then take that recording and leverage Zoom to automatically transcribe the audio into text. And if you really want to get fancy, Zoom also gives you the option to put the transcript text into the finished video, sort of like closed captions.

6. Visit Breakout Rooms: Imagine you’re at a real life dinner party. Not everyone hangs in the same room. Some people are in the kitchen. Some people are in the living room. And some people are outside. You can sort of create a similar experience with Zoom’s virtual breakout rooms. This allows you the opportunity to split away from the crowd to have smaller conversations.

7. Improve Your Image: Unless you’re some sort of super model, I can’t think of too many people who look good on a webcam. Add poor lighting, a really boring background, and the fact I haven’t shaved in a week, and you’ll see what I mean. If this also describes you, make sure to use Zoom’s “​​Touch Up My Appearance” option. It will help make you look more human.

Since we are going to be in social distance mode for the foreseeable future, employing some of these Zoom hacks may make your time more enjoyable. And with the weekend on the way,  I recommend you to test Zoom for your next virtual happy hour, poker night or dinner party.

How To Backup Your Blog In Five Minutes A Week

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You need to backup your blog today. Like right after you read this article. And I’m speaking from experience. A few days back one of my blogs completely went kaput. It was a crappy experience on an already crappy day. And it could have been prevented.

The reason this happened was simple. I installed a plugin to help me “clean up” my database and delete useless content and unlinked images. This is nothing new. Over the past decade, I have installed and used hundreds of plugins. And in that time, I never crashed my site.

backup your blog

Backup Your Blog

But this day was different. A few seconds after executing the plugin, my site crashed. I mean really crashed. The page I was on went grey. And I got a warning that my database was no longer connected. I tried to refresh the page, return to the dashboard and access a few blog posts. But nothing worked.

At this point, I reached out to my hosting company (I use WPEngine, which in full disclosure I also promote as an affiliate) and they confirmed my worst fear… The plugin had destroyed all essential databases. But the next part really made me panic. The technical support rep asked asked if I had a back up. I did not.

The reason I did not have a back up for my site is because I’m an experienced blogger. I know what I’m doing. So why would I ever need to back up my site? And isn’t it the job of my hosting company to keep back ups on file? This was really silly on my part.

Plan For The Unexpected

At this point I didn’t know if I should cry or laugh. The blog contains nearly one-thousand articles published over a decade. And more importantly, the blog generates a major source of income for our family. Even my wife (who doesn’t pay much attention to my nerd talk) turned off the TV and hugged our dog…

Three (very long) minutes later WPEngine came back with good news. They were able to restore the site to a backup from a few days ago. And this fixed the database too. Suffice it to say, I learned a big lesson… Always back up your site! At the very least, make sure you take time download your recent content.

And while I do pay over $100 a month for WPEngine hosting, the support is worth every penny. They have a 24/7 chat box. And I’ve always been impressed with the companies ability solve my major site issues. (Outside of this experience, I also run a secure monthly membership site. And they are great at helping me with that stuff too!)

The Lazy Blog Backup

If you’re busy, then exporting your content as an XML file is a small step you can take to at lease preserve your blog articles. Keep in mind that this method does not retain your images and media. But if your site completely fails, then you at least have something.

Step 1 – Go into your blog dashboard and click on Tools.

wordpress export

Step 2 – Click on the Export tab and save your file somewhere secure!

export wordpress

Additional Blog Backup Options

As I mentioned earlier, this export will give you an XML file. It will contain your basic articles. And if you have to resort to this method, you’ll spend the next month adding images and media to your site. It’s not the worst experience. But it’s not great.

If you really want to back up your blog like a pro, you might choose from any number of the awesome WordPress backup plugins available. If you’re using WPEngine, you’ll find they disallow some popular backup plugins, as they may conflict with the platform. In this regard, Vaultpress is a common secondary plugin that they recommend. And you want to get some awesome hosting (again, I get paid to promote – And I do so, because I LOVE the service) check out WPEngine.

The Most Simple Morning Routine Ever

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Every successful person I know talks about their morning routine like it’s the holy grail. And I’m convinced that getting into good morning routine (as a habit) will help you accelerate your personal and business success. But here’s the thing… You need to make your morning routine a habit.

If you read other articles on this, you’ll find that many morning routines are super complex and require that you have the discipline of Rocky. These are tough for me. The truth is, if the routine is not simple, I won’t do it. So here is the most simple morning routine I ever developed:

Simple Morning Routine

While each person’s routine is different, I wanted to share mine as an example:

01.) 4:30 AM – Wake up.

02.) 4:35 AM – Drink TWO LARGE GLASSES of water.

03.) 4:40 AM – Sip a cup of coffee or matcha tea.

04.) 4:45 AM – Break out the journal and free flow on these topics:

  • What am I grateful for?
  • What do I really want out of life?
  • How can I improve?

05.) 5:15 AM – Listen to an inspirational audio training or an awesome podcast.

06.) 5:45 AM – Continue audio training in car as I go to the gym.

07.) 6:00 AM – Continue audio training on treadmill days. (*If it’s a workout class, I focus on the class.)

08.) 7:10 AM – Continue audio training on drive home.

09.) 7:40 AM – Shower / Eat / Prep For Day

10.) 8:15 AM – Spend time with wife. (Often we take the dog on a walk.)

After the walk, my wife heads to the office. Then I start my day.

Prep Your Morning Routine

I have had a lot of insomnia. Cutting down on food and booze helps a lot. And if I’m not at some networking event, I try to stop eating all food around 7PM. This gives me enough time to digest dinner and get to bed around 10PM each night.

If you’d really like to sleep better, I highly recommend that you turn off your phone before bed and leave it in the other room. I’m not kidding. I have completely stopped brining my phone into the bedroom. And this alone has really helped me improve my sleep.

If you incorporate some of these tactics into your day, you might just feel amazing. You’ll have more optimism. This will lead to more productivity. And your added productivity will lead to a deep, sound sleep. As a result, you might want to sleep in some days. On those mornings, don’t beat yourself up for changing routine.

 

How To Write Blog Articles Fast (This Template Will Save Time)

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With a gazillion blog articles getting published every minute, finding ways to write blog articles fast can help you rise above the noise and get noticed. The problem is, if you’re trying to grow your blog while managing a job, kids, a two week vacation and your 401k, where the heck to do you find the time?

To solve this problem, I am going to share the super awesome template I use for all my blog articles. This has been perfected over the past decade and I think you’ll love it. Additionally, this is the also the same template I send to any guest blogger.

Write Blog Articles Fast

How To Write Blog Articles Fast

The following blog article template works great for a 350-500 word article. If you adopt this pattern for writing blog articles, you’ll be able to bust out easy to read, informative blog articles faster than most!

01.) Short paragraph one (w/keyword)
02.) Short paragraph two
03.) Image one (w/keyword alt tag)
04.) h2 Sub Heading (w/keyword)
05.) Short paragraph three
06.) Short paragraph four (w/keyword)
07.) Short paragraph five with brief call to action

If the article goes longer, remove the CTA and extend the pattern.

07.) Short paragraph five
08.) Image two (w/keyword alt tag)
09.) h2 Sub Heading
10.) Short paragraph six (w/keyword)
11.) Short paragraph seven
12.) Short paragraph eight with brief call to action

As you can tell, I sort of followed the pattern for this article. (Can you guess the keyword?)

Additionally, your image selection is super important for driving social shares and engagement. For images, take a quick minute to research Snappa (it’s an affiliate link… if you sign up for the software, I get paid.) Affiliate promotion aside, Snappa is an easy to use online photo editing program with a built in royalty free photo library. For this article, I chose a photo (and added the text in Snappa) because it’s something my ideal reader can relate to.

How To Use Missinglettr To Increase Your Blog Traffic

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Your blogging success is dependent upon traffic. Without traffic, you don’t have much of a business. One easy way to drive traffic back to your site is through social sharing. As soon as you post an article, you share it on all your social media accounts. Doing this helps you engage your audience and drive traffic back to your site.

The problem is, this is usually a once-and-done process. After sharing your article, you get distracted with a gazillion other blogging tasks. And next thing you know, your social shares get lost in the noise. This is where Missinglettr can help.

Missinglettr

How To Use Missinglettr To Increase Your Blog Traffic

Missinglettr offers an easy way to engage your audience and drive traffic back your site. You simply write your article, then the software re-shares your article multiple times over the next year. Because this works on auto pilot, this saves lots of time. And over time, each new article drives more and more traffic back to your site.

As soon as you publish a blog post, Missinglettr sends an email asking you to review the 12 month social campaign before going live. From there, you simply log into your account, make some minor edits and then push it live. After that, your blog article will be shared in your social media channels over the next year.

Here’s a brief video overview of how to use the service:

Assuming your articles are good, using Missinglettr can help you increase your traffic. And once you increase your traffic, you’ll be able to get more email subscribers. From there, you’ll be able to present value, build trust, and increase sales. And having an easy way to automate this process will allow you to focus on creating new content for your blog.

I personally love using Missinglettr so much that I’ve become an affiliate. With this in mind, they are allowing me to offer you a pretty awesome deal just for trying out the service. To find out more about automating social promotions, go here. 

Warning: Quitting Your Job May Suck More Than You Think

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Quitting your job may suck more than you think. This is a bummer because most folks teaching entrepreneurship will have you believe that turning your side hustle into a full time business is the best decision you can make… And maybe this is true for some people. But if you’re like me, you might find yourself asking self defeating questions like:

Am I doing the right thing? Am I wasting my life? Is this a joke?

Running a business is a mind game. Each day you’re faced with challenges both externally and internally. New competition pisses you off. Your website breaks. You miss sales goals. Taxes take a toll. And at 3 a.m. you find yourself unable to sleep, wondering if you actually have what it takes to make your business dreams a reality.

quitting your job

Quitting Your Job May Suck

Although quitting your job may suck more than you think, it’s good to remind yourself WHY you refuse to be a wage slave. For starters, a J.O.B. is an abbreviation for “just over broke.” And even when you make good money, job security is just an illusion. You could spend your entire youth loyal to an organization, and without notice your idiot boss can decide to fire you.

What would you do then?

When you’re running your own business, if you lose one customer, you can find TEN new customers and continually increase your income. Having these options creates much better “job security.” And unlike those days at the office where your coworkers waste time talking about the latest television show – your time will be much more productive. You will learn to continually assess each minute, always asking: “Is this the best use of my time right now?”

When it comes down to it, quitting your job to run your own business is not easy. But if you can stay the course long enough replace (and then triple) your income, it is well worth it. And if you take time to come up with a game-plan, running your own business can be a lot less risky than the alternative.

How To Quit Your Job (Even When You’re Terrified Of Failure)

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Wouldn’t it be great to quit your job so you can live life on your own terms? What if you could do whatever you want, when you want to do it? How would that change your life? What would you do with all the extra time and creative energy?

These are the same questions I asked myself over and over. And because I was curious to find the answers, (after months of planning) a few months back I made the decision to quit my safe, comfortable job so I could grow my online business.

quit your job

I was so excited to share my story, that I immediately posted a public update on Facebook. In response, many friends commented with stuff like: “That’s freaking brave and amazing Jason!”

For a day or two, I felt totally awesome. I was no longer an employee. When it came to work, I was free to write my own ticket. I could do what I wanted, when I wanted and no boss could tell me otherwise. I was finally an entrepreneur.

But then the reality of my decision hit hard…

Sleepless Nights Are Filled With Worry

Motivational speakers always tell you to follow your authentic passion and to trust your gut. But these gurus don’t talk about the enviable sleepless nights filled with self doubt. What if my business fails? What if I run out of money? What if I need to find a job, but can’t? What if I totally suck? Am I really cut out to run my own business?

Leaving a job is a big life decision, bound to dredge up all sorts of negative self talk. And learning to ignore these voices, while generating your own income is the first rite of passage. The universe (or God) requires that you take steps towards becoming a new person. This is because the skills that got you here will not get you where you need to go. You must grow.

Before You Quit Your Job

Nobody I have ever met fully enjoys working for someone else. You trade time for money. You have rules to follow. Obligations to fulfill. Deadlines to meet. And lots of long hours. And even if you’re among the few who actually like your job, if your leadership team makes a stupid decision, you’re out of a job. That totally sucks.

If you’re running a side hustle, sooner or later you look at your monthly income and think: “I could go really big if I didn’t burn all my extra time working for someone else.” This is usually the time you start imagining how you are going to quit your job and grow your business. This is also the time when a lot of people make mistakes.

How To Plan Your Escape

Depending on your obligations, you need a way to make enough money to live. And sometimes keeping your job is the most practical way to support your family. But this doesn’t mean you can’t start planning. The allure of what’s possible is so seductive that you feel like every day on the job is a day wasted.

To start planning for your life of freedom, you need to first figure out how much money you need to maintain your lifestyle. If you don’t know this number, stop everything and set up an account at Mint. Once complete, you’ll want to analyze your past spending and set up a budget for future spending.

Things To Do Before You Quit Your Job:

Here are three major things to do before you decide to resign from you job.

1. Get at least six months of savings: I know six months may seem excessive. But here’s the thing… It’s going to take you longer than you think to replace your income. And by forcing yourself to save enough money to cover at least six months, you’ll gain the financial discipline necessary to run a business.

2. Don’t forget health insurance: One visit to the emergency room can be enough to bankrupt your dreams. Do yourself a favor and budget for a health plan. And if you can get on your spouse’s  plan, more power to you.

3. Get super, duper focused: If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you have grandiose ideas on how you’d start a dozen businesses. Focus on the one you’re most excited about. Out of those, choose one that will:
A. Make it so you don’t have to work for other people.
B. Eventually scale so you can become financially free.

Push Forward When Things Suck

When it comes time to follow your authentic purpose, don’t worry about your age, education or where you grew up. These factors are less important than your ambition and willingness to push forward when things suck. (And things will suck!) Let your future accomplishments serve as an inspiration to others who feel blocked.

You don’t need to quit your job tomorrow. But if you ever expect to do cool stuff in life, you’ll need to stop procrastinating and make a plan this week. And if you need help, read this article on how to find your next career.

How To Solve The Great Blogging Paradox This Year

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When I started blogging, my goal was to pay all bills and travel at will. I also planned to share all my blogging successes with you. What I didn’t anticipate was just how much blog notoriety can distract you from your goals. And this situation is what I think of as the great blogging paradox. Let me explain…

Growing my blog gave me credibility. And the credibility helped me land lucrative consulting gigs. And one of those gigs turned into a six figure salary, complete with a VP title. As a result, any time I thought about blogging full time, I first compared my online income to my blog income. And without fail, I always made more money on the job. Ugh!

blogging paradox

The Great Blogging Paradox

You’ll know you’re in the blogging paradox when your job income continually surpasses your blog income. And no matter what you do, you can’t seem to find any way to get ahead. Then when you combine your blog income with your job income, it’s a lot of money. At those moments, it hardly makes sense to quit your job. So you end up working longer hours to improve both your blog and job success. And it’s an endless cycle.

To break free from the “day job” you need to get super serious about your blogging goals. When I started out, making $5 dollars a day was the goal. Now I’m aiming to make at least $500 dollars per day. I imagine your goal falls somewhere in the middle. To break free of this blogging paradox, you need to increase your numbers (while keeping things simple).

Here Are Some Numbers To Focus On:

1. Increase email subscribers: Despite what the latest and greatest blogging trends will have you believe, focusing on getting email subscribers is the primary goal of your blog. Focus on increasing email subscribers and the sales will follow.

2. Find the value per email subscriber: You can roughly find the value of each email subscriber by dividing your monthly revenue by your monthly subscribers. With my blog, each subscriber is worth $2.40. This number is considered low by most internet marketing standards. But theoretically, it means I can spend up to $2.39 to acquire a subscriber and still be profitable.

3. Get more organic email subscribers: Aside from being free, organic subscribers are often the most engaged (and the most ready to buy). So you need to figure out how to get more. Since a lot of people find my blog through my daily article posts on Facebook, I started sharing more articles each day. This sounds obvious, but it has already increased my organic subscriber rate.

Again, my goal is to create at least $500 dollars per day in blogging revenue by the end of this year. If you are interested in following my journey, you may want to download my toolkit.

Want Success Online? Find A Business Mentor

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Wouldn’t it be great to find a business mentor? Someone who could guide you through the ups and downs of growing a successful online business? This was one of the questions asked during an inspirational talk I was presently watching on YouTube. It was 3AM and I couldn’t sleep…

This was during the 2008 economic collapse and I was running out of money. I am not sure what YOU did during the time, but I was living in a state of worry. And the only thing that kept me sane was watching success gurus drone on and on about all the stuff successful people do when times get tough. And times were tough.

business mentor

Want Success Online? Find A Business Mentor

One dude mentioned about how birds of a feather flock together. I heard it before, but he went on to talk about how you become the people you spend the most time with. If you want success, you need to hang around successful people. And that got me thinking. Most the people around me were losing jobs and running out of money too. Everyone was worried. And that sucked.

He also went on to talk about how success leaves tracks. And if you want to accelerate your own success, one thing you can do is find someone who has accomplished the things you want to do and see if that person would be willing to serve as a business mentor.

If the whole mentoring concept is new to you, I’ll make it simple – A mentor is someone who takes an interest in your success. He or she will be available for advice and to commensurate, but may not be directly involved in your business. If this is interesting, here are some tactics for finding your own business mentor:

  1. Compile a list of people you want to meet.
  2. Write them a letter. Follow up with a phone call.
  3. When someone answers, reference the letter and ask for the meeting.
  4. If you get the meeting, awesome! If not, try again later.
  5. Repeat the process.

Finding a mentor will go a long way towards helping you avoid common pitfalls and accelerate your success. To get started, figure out what you want to accomplish. What do you want out of life? From there, find people who have achieved your goal. And if you want a really awesome resource for finding a mentor, check out SCORE.