Jason Brubaker

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.

 

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.

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.

Secret Side Hustle: Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Read This Article

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If you’re sick of your job, starting a side hustle can help. And I’m speaking from experience. If you’re like most people, your job was fun in the beginning. You came to work each day, energized to make things happen. But over time, enthusiasm faded.

Market conditions, regulations and interpersonal crap with your co-workers and clients beat you into submission. And now “you’re woke,” asking yourself if this what life is about? Is this really the best you can do?

side hustle

Your Boss Doesn’t Want You To Read This

At least you’re not alone. Everyone else at your work is going through motions like a bunch of task zombies. Even your boss. Except she’s worse off than you. Because in addition to also despising her job, she has to pretend what you’re doing matters. (It doesn’t.)

If this sounds familiar, you have two choices.

  1. Stay miserable until you get fired or die.
  2. Plan your exit strategy NOW.

To be clear, you don’t need to quit your job today. That would be reckless. But you do need to plan your exit strategy. And that is going to take some planning, courage and (eventually) action. To help you put things in perspective, watch this video:

See what I mean? When compared to the rest of the known universe, your work challenges are insignificant. Of course, this grandiose perspective doesn’t change the fact that come Monday, you’ll still have to white-knuckle your way through a bunch of bureaucratic BS.

The easy solution is to find another job. But this is a short term fix. Sooner or later you will hate your new job as much as you hate your current job. So instead of quitting, I suggest you keep your job and start a secret side hustle.

Establish Your Secret Side Hustle

A side hustle is a business you run on a small scale to grow and eventually replace your current income. And you should keep side hustle secret until it starts making money. The reason for secrecy is three fold:

  1. Your side hustle could make your intention to leave your current employer blatantly obvious… Which could prompt your boss to help accelerate your exit. Depending on your financial situation, that could suck.
  2. You don’t need the added pressure of friends and family continually asking about your business. And you certainly don’t need more unsolicited opinions outlining all the reasons your side hustle could fail.
  3. And finally, having a secret side hustle will give you clarity and confidence. While all your co-workers are mucking about, worried about their fate as an employee, you’ll be able to watch the show with delightful detachment.

As you gain success in your secret side hustle, don’t be surprised if you get promoted at work. It is hard to describe, but having your own source of income gives you interpersonal super powers… Suddenly your opinions matter and your influence grows… Probably because you don’t care. I think this clip from Office Space sums it up nicely:

If this sounds good, here are next steps for planning your secret side hustle:

Step 1: Know your number. How much money do you need to make each month to afford your desired lifestyle?

Step 2: Find your side hustle: Out of the gazillion businesses you can create on the side, which one grabs your attention the most? (Since you’re reading this blog, I suggest you create a blog business.)

Step 3: Research successful people: Find people successful in your niche, already selling stuff to your ideal customer. What are they doing that you like? What are they doing that you don’t like?

Step 4: Take baby steps to get there: Building a profitable side hustle into a full time business takes time. Work backwards. Break your big business goals into monthly tasks. Then break the months into weeks. And break the weeks into days. What task will you complete today to get one step closer?

Step 5: And finally, keep learning. The only way you’re going to gain success in life is by learning new stuff, and by meeting people more successful than you. That’s it. Everything else is more of the same.

I wish you all the best on your journey.

New Years Resolutions Suck: How To GO BIG In 2019

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New Years Resolutions suck. And if you’re like most ambitious people, you just spent the last few weeks thinking about how you’d like to go big in 2019… You thought about who you are and who you want to become. And maybe for the first few days (in the New Year) you actually took some steps to get there.

But then life happened. And you already dropped some of your “resolutions.”

So why does this happen?

go big in 2019

New Years Resolutions Suck

The reason you haven’t (seriously) achieved the BIG LIFE CHANGING GOALS is because it is easier to stay comfortable every day, than go big. And you might even be comfortable, being uncomfortable… And believe me, I’m speaking from experience on this one!

Every day you wake up and you make similar decisions as the day before. Sure. You know what you should be doing. But you put off until tomorrow. Then days become weeks. And if you don’t figure out a way to change, you’ll be right back here, reading a similar article 365 days from now. And that will not feel good. So if you’re not where you want to be, you have two decisions:

  1. Do nothing and continue to let life push you into a comfort zone.
  2. Take serious action (not just theory) in the direction of your goals.

If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you’re the type who wants to take serious action in the direction of your goals… And go big. But maybe you’re stuck on something. And maybe you don’t know what actions to take next?

How To GO BIG In 2019

Here are two tactics to help you go big this year:

  1. Learn NEW Stuff: Seriously. Read more books. Listen to audio training and podcasts. Watch instructional videos. Go to workshops. Make it your mission to listen to at least one informative podcast or audio book EVERY DAY. Over time this creates new thinking. And new thinking will eventually lead you to new action.
  2. Meet NEW People: You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If the people you hang out with are average, you will remain average. You need to find people who are playing a BIGGER GAME and spend time with them.

Attend networking events in your area and make it your mission to take at least one (successful) person to lunch or breakfast every week. This practice will eventually help you make new friends, get you thinking in new ways, which will open the doors to new opportunities. And if you don’t know where to start, I suggest joining the local toastmasters club.

The secret of going big is achieved through small steps over time. And if you’d like to network with me, make sure you sign up for the most awesome newsletter you’ll ever read. Actually, I’m a little biased. But I do think you’ll like the stuff I send you.

The Unbelievable Benefits of Creating Passive Income (For Ambitious People)

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If you’re like most people, you fantasize about quitting your job so you can turn you side hustle into full time passive income. But for whatever reason, you fail to take the necessary action.

Don’t get me wrong. Having a job is not the end of the world. But if your job is your ONLY source of income, you’re putting your family at risk. If you lose your job, you lose your income. And even if you keep your job, your earning potential is limited.

When you work for a boss, you trade your freedom for money. And the only way you can make more money is by working more hours, or finding a part time job. This is why many people feel like slaves. But what if there was another way?

creating passive income

Turn Your Side Hustle Into Passive Income

By now you’re fully aware that the Internet offers a gazillion opportunities to generate income. If you make a plan and consistently follow the plan, you can start an online business and grow your income into full time freedom. It’s really amazing if you think about it.

To give you an example of how this works, let’s pretend you have a product. Maybe it’s a puppy treat cookbook called “Delicious Puppy Treats You Can Bake In 10 Minutes.” And better yet, what if your cookbook could be fully downloadable so there is no inventory?

Unlike a brick and mortar business (which carries a ton of expenses), you can set up a website and start selling your eBook for less than a dinner and a movie for two. Your website is open all the time. And you can attract thousands of puppy owners (from anywhere on earth) and make sales all day, every day.

Passive Income Will Change Your Life

What I’m describing is called passive income. And passive income will change your life.

For example, imagine that you get invited to Vegas for your friend’s bachelor party. And just like old times, you and your friends meet up and roam the casinos like a bunch of hooligans. Next thing you know, it’s 3AM and one too many beers, followed by too many bad rolls at the craps table has led you back the ATM for possibly the second or fifth time…

The next morning you wake up, still fully clothed and hungover in your hotel room, riddled with shame. You knew you should have called it quits when the tables went south. But you didn’t. And as you turn over to grab the TV controller, you notice multiple ATM receipts. You grab the stack and add up the total… And sure enough you blew over five hundred dollars! But at least it was fun? Not really.

Now life sucks. You suck. The hotel sucks. Bachelor parties suck. And you’re never coming back to Vegas again. Because lets face it, the casino always wins. And at this point, you pick up your phone to check flights… Can you fly home early?

Just then, you notice the multiple email notifications from your shopping cart service. While you were making memories with your idiot friends, your website was generating enough passive income to save you from yourself. And luckily, you sold a TON of puppy treat cookbooks. In fact, you made over $700 in sales. Essentially your downloadable product paid for your long list of terrible decisions.

Even though you still feel some shame and should most definitely talk to a professional about your excessive drinking, your gambling problems, and your poor choice of friends… You at least didn’t totally drain your bank account. And with this in mind, you hop in the shower, ready to rue the Vegas morning over a bloody Mary with extra bacon at Guy Fieri’s Vegas Kitchen, which incidentally will also be paid for with passive income.

A Quick Disclaimer About Your Choices

Even though I used this ridiculous example, I’m not saying you should create passive income just so you can make bad decisions in Vegas. Why not support a charity, or a church, or buy some real estate, or run for political office, or buy your parents a vacation house in Myrtle Beach, or travel to some far off distant land? The point is, once you replace your job income with passive income, you can do whatever the heck you want…

Because you will have full time freedom!

When you set up your online side hustle, you have unlimited earning potential. And while it may take you a few months create your downloadable product – Once your product is complete, you can start generating passive income. Then after you create one passive income stream, you can create more products. And with each new product, your passive income gets closer to full time freedom. So what are you waiting for?

How To Find Your Next Career

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It’s four-o-clock in the morning and you’re wondering how to find your next career. You’re laying in bed wide awake (again). The whole world is spinning and you’re thinking maybe you should have made different decisions with your life.

What you’re feeling is uncertainty. And I’ve been there. In the past decade, I have worked for five start ups. And most of those companies either tanked or tanked me. That’s the whole reason I started blogging. Sometimes it makes sense to plan your next career move.

How-To-Find-Your-Next-Career

How To Find Your Next Career

If you want to find your next career, you have to get real with yourself.

STEP ONE: Make A List Of Everything You Do

When you’re not at work, how do you spend your time? What do you find yourself doing without thinking about it? How could you combine your interests to create value?

I am personally attracted to sales, internet marketing, writing and public speaking. Even when I am not working, these activities are fun for me. So my short list would look like this:

  • Face-to-Face Sales.
  • Internet Marketing.
  • Writing.
  • Public speaking.

I would do these things even if people didn’t pay me.

STEP TWO: Find A Market For Your Skills

If you could create the perfect career, what would it look like? You really have to take time to think this through. Because unless you’re honest about your goals, skills and interests – it will be challenging to find your next career.

Once you take time to sketch out ideas, you need to find some role models. Who is already doing what you want to do? And who do you spend the most time with?

You become the people you spend the most time with.

In other words if there is something you don’t like about your current situation, look around. Odds are good your friends currently reflect you. If you aspire to be more than you currently are, make friends with people who are doing more.

Even if you are totally clueless, you need to commit to taking one small action (any action) towards becoming more awesome. Once you take the first step, you can figure out the rest…

For me that meant calling people cold.

I started by calling my old boss (I hate the word boss, but anyway…)

He’s one of those dot-com guys who sold his first company for a few million dollars. We worked together on a start-up a few years back. Our start up was almost a success. Then our investors pulled out. Then he fired me. (He told me that I was laid off, not fired. But sying I got fired feels a lot more awesome.)

So we met up for drinks. And he offered some solid success advice that I have been rolling around in my mind ever since…

Even A Turkey Can Fly In A Hurricane

My old boss said, “even a turkey can fly in a hurricane.”

I found out later that this is cliche. But I never heard it before.

It means you can spend years grinding away at a business, but if you’re in the wrong market, you will probably burn out. (Been there!) So the solution is clear.

Find a hot market and reinvest your skills there. Because even if you suck at first, don’t worry. Just like a turkey flying in a hurricane, you will fare better than if you keep doing something that totally blows.

Meet NEW People Weekly

We all have the habit of sticking with our comfort zone. But that’s not going to help you find new opportunity. So you need to expand your network. The best way to do this is ask people to meet up weekly.

Get involved in stuff like Toastmasters. Meet ups. Trade shows. Networking functions. The reason? Sooner or later you’re going to meet someone new – And that single meeting will lead to your next career path.

Think about it. You are never going to be this young and have this amount of energy ever again. So you may as well take action. And while you’re at it, start a blog.

Are You Living A Life Of Quiet Desperation?

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Do you ever feel like you could be doing so much more with your life? When you started out, you dreamed big. Do you remember You woke up each day filled with excitement for the possibilities of tomorrow.

Then life happened. 

Days became weeks. Weeks became years. And now, decades…

quiet desperation

Are You Living A Life Of Quiet Desperation?

Now you start each day with a wave of dread.

You’re going through the motions and grinding. You have a decent job and a family who loves you.

To most people, you look like a success. But you and I both know you’re on the brink of burnout and you’re bored.

You’re living a life of quiet desperation.

How did this happen?

Easy. You settled. You let yourself get comfortable. But how this happened is not important. What is important is the next chapter in your life.

By reading these words, you are about to take a new direction in life…

How do I know?

Because you are not alone. I’ve been there.

To help you, I’m going to share some useful tactics steps in real time so you can follow along… I don’t promise you fame and fortune and a new Ferarri. But what you’ll get from me is real…

So if you’d like more tactics like the article you just read, make sure you sign up for the most awesome newsletter you’ll ever read. (Actually, I’m a little biased. But I do think you’ll like the stuff I send you.)

Overcoming Fear: How I Almost Cried At My Bachelor Party

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Over the years, I’ve taken some calculated business risks that usually turned out okay. So you’d think I’d have some good strategies for overcoming fear. But I never anticipated how my idiot friends would surprise me on my bachelor party.

On the day of my party, my best man convinced me we were going golfing. We were in Las Vegas. And if you’ve never been, there is a nice golf course a few miles south of the strip, in front of a small airport. And it wasn’t until we drove past the golf course that I realized there would be no golf…

“Just kidding. We’re going sky diving.”

My friends didn’t seem the least bit concerned that I had a fear of heights. Or that the absolute last thing I ever wanted to do IN MY LIFE was jump out of a perfectly good airplane.

overcoming fear

The Truth About Skydiving (And Overcoming Fear)

Now if you’ve never entered a skydiving facility before, the first thing you do is watch some terrible video that tells you literally, the top 10 ways you will most likely die. Then they make you get on a table, lift your legs to your chest and pretend you’re falling. That’s it. That’s the whole training. A video and a leg exercise.

Then the skydiving place makes you sign a waiver, which once again assures you that your parachute will probably fail and you will plummet 18,000 feet to your doom. All of which filled my mind with horrific imaginings of how my beautiful bride would be left alone, crying at the alter.

At this point, I was pissed. Any strategy for overcoming fear was replaced by an irrepressible desire to punch my best man in his stupid, idiot face. And while the memory is still a little fuzzy, I remember YELLING within earshot of a dozen other prospective skydivers.

“BACHELOR PARTY FAIL!”

Another buddy sort of pushed me outside and assured me that he also thought the idea of falling from an airplane was stupid. He said that him and I should just go back inside and wait it out.

But back inside, he was like: “Just kidding.”

Think about it. Those guys had months and months to mentally prepare for the jump. And I had like fifteen minutes to decide. At that moment, I had two choices:

— I could wait on the sidelines and miss out on a life changing, memorable experience.

— I could DECIDE to overcome fear and go for it.

The skydiving facility had already pegged me as “the terrified wimp” so when I turned in my fully executed waiver, they put me in tandem with the ex-special forces guy named Demetrius who I’m sure could pass as Jason Statham’s stunt double.

“Do not worry. I will not let you die today.”

Next thing you know we are 18,000 feet above the earth and Demetrius is telling me to put my legs out the door. Before I had a chance to protest, I was free falling.

jason_brubaker_skydiving

Free falling to the earth (at approximately 120 miles per hour), I realized  three important lessons about overcoming fear:

1. Once you “go for it” crying and complaining (and screaming) is not going to help.

2. Time is limited. So find some way to enjoy the process.

3. When you achieve the goal, you wonder why you waited.

I would love to tell you that some aspect of my life profoundly changed that day. But I mostly realized that my friends are jerks who cannot be trusted. The good news is, there are more dude trips in our future and I’m already thinking up ways I can trick help my friends find new strategies for overcoming fear.

If you’d like to get past your own fears so you can start your online business, check out InfoMarketing101