Sometimes, it`s the smallest decisions that change your life forever.

Seven years ago I was that athletic, hyperactive person you could look at and admire.

I was madly in love with cardio, and I could easily work out twice a day, six days a week, without a single complain, not to mention jogging at 6AM five days each week.

In college I went through lots of rough times, especially in my senior year. I was always stressed, I procrastinated a lot, and I couldn’t care less about working out, until one day I woke up and realized that I had gained forty-six pounds in less than a year.

In just twelve months, I found myself transforming into a less attractive, obese young man who couldn`t breathe properly or even fit into an old pair of jeans. I also had stress problems and a non-stop bad temper.

I tried hard to get back on track and get my old self back again, but with so much stress in my life, it was only a matter of days until I gave up and went back to my bad eating habits.

I would plan my diet, stick to it for a couple of day or weeks, and then give up. Working out was no longer easy for me; the gym was boring and healthy food was unbearable.

For seven consecutive years I faced lots of difficulties and tried to lose weight more than 100 times. All failed. I was desperate, I was helpless, and I felt stuck, until one day I asked myself:

Why don`t I start small?

Why don`t I forget about doing too many things at once and change only one thing and see what happens next?

Why don`t I just go to the gym—without caring about how much I eat, how heavy I lift, how fast I run, and without even sticking myself to a specific schedule?

What if I just put my shoes on and walked myself to the gym three days every week, and considered my daily goal done once I stepped into the gym. No more doubts and no more worries—I’d just try to be someone who goes to the gym more often.

I did it, and it was the best thing I ever did for myself.

In a matter of three months, I have lost thirty-eight pounds, gained control over my life, and become more disciplined. And junk food has finally no control over me.

I did that by following a set of universal laws that most people neglect when trying to change their lives. I strongly believe that if you manage to follow these universal laws, changing your life is guaranteed.

I have summarized these laws in four simple rules that are applicable to almost all types of human behavior. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or build self-confidence, follow these four rules and you will see results.

Rule 1: Make it easy to start.

I asked myself: What are the obstacles that made me hate going to the gym?

The answer was:

• Feeling bad when I fail to reach the specific number of reps for each exercise, or when I don’t lift heavily.
• Feeling bad when I can`t push myself to run on a treadmill.
• Feel like I’m not disciplined enough and I lack control over my life whenever I miss a workout (even if I have a busy schedule).

So I decided to eliminate all the obstacles and make it easy to go to the gym consistently.

I knew that if I kept lifting weights and running even with 50 percent of my strength, my body would change and I would see progress. That`s why I decided to:

• Lift only what I could, especially when I wasn’t in the mood to lift heavy.
• Do only what I could when it came to cardio. If the ideal intense cardio workout is made of four intervals, then I’d be satisfied if I did two or more.
• Be less strict with timing. I’d hit the gym any day at anytime as long as I go there at least three times each week.

I did that and I realized something very strange. When I dropped the stress off my shoulders, I started to lift heavy weights, run faster, and go the extra mile in almost all of my workouts. And that made me stick to the habit more than ever because I made it easy for myself to progress.

If you want to see results, you must make it so easy to start that there is no place for thoughts of quitting or backing up. Life is already hard. Don`t make it harder.

Rule 2: It`s all about consistency.

No matter who you are, you will have some sort of resistance to change. This resistance is at its minimum when you introduce change into your life step by step until it becomes a part of who you are, or face any kind of emotional trauma or a situation when change is a must (like losing your job or getting a divorce).

Since you don`t want to put yourself in a traumatic situation, and because your reasons are sometimes not strong enough to weaken your inner resistance immediately, the best way to change your lifestyle is by starting small and being consistent.

By focusing on one—and only one—thing to change at a time (so you don`t stir up your inner resistance) and taking consistent actions toward this goal until you have a new way of life.

Take my dieting example:

It was hard for me to exercise regularly and introduce a healthy lifestyle to my daily routine, so I changed only one variable (going to the gym) and left the rest unchanged. Within a month I found myself changing my eating habits completely without feeling bad about it.

Why? Because being a gym-goer had changed the image I had of myself, which made overeating seem less exciting.

I simply didn`t want to lose the calories I worked hard to burn in the gym on a can of soda or a cheeseburger.

Consider change as a snowball; all you need is to build a small ball, clear the path, and let the ball roll.

Start small now and build on it. It`s the tortoise that wins in real life, not the lazy rabbit.

Stop trying to revolutionize your life in a single shot. Small and consistent is what you need to explode.

Rule 3: You never start at the end line. 

When playing a new video game, the best way to show fast progress is to start at the amateur mode and get used to it for sometime before you move to the Pro level.

The same goes with real change; you start at the bottom in the amateur mode and keep progressing until you become a pro.

Your goal is to move from the beginner level to the pro one fast and safe, and to do so you must know that:

• When you demand too much too early, you lose.
• When you be over judgmental and beat yourself up too often, you lose.
• And when you choose perfection over progress, you still lose.

Don`t look far and forget where you`re stepping. You have two eyes; keep one on the sky and the other one under your feet.

Rule 4: Regret is a complete waste of time.

I had my moments of relapsing. I have cheated many times but I didn`t allow such mistakes to ruin my diet because I realized that regret is useless.

When changing your life, keep in mind that it`s immediate action that fixes a mistake, not crying over it. It is your reaction toward a mistake that counts, not the mistake itself.

Get over your mistakes fast, and you will be amazed by how far you will go with your life.

If you learn something in this article, feel free to comment below.

5 Ways Dreamers Can Become Doers!

Maybe you’ve been called a dreamer your whole life—by others and by yourself. However, saying you are a dreamer or a doer is like saying you are good or bad. Nobody is 100 percent one way or the other, but they may lean more in one direction. It’s a spectrum, and the good news is that you can shift the paradigm so you’re a little more balanced.

Remember that being a doer isn’t necessarily better than being a dreamer. You need both to succeed. 

If you’re really off kilter and have a lot more dreamer tendencies, it’s time to take action. Here are some of the easiest, quickest ways to embrace your inner doer so your dreamer can take a little break. Remember, without a comprehensive, balanced approach you’ll just keep going in circles:

1. Write down goals and give them a deadline.

So, you say you want to write a novel and have it ready to submit to literary agent or publishing house. That’s awesome - but how far along are you? What do you define as “submission ready”? How long can you write per day, and is it scheduled into your routine just like work or going to the gym?

Depending on where you are with your draft, choose a deadline for being submission ready (less than two years out), or schedule mini-deadlines, such as two chapters written by month's end. This approach works for any goal, not just a novel manuscript.

2. Balance wants and needs.

 Every time you decide you want to do something, follow that up with a list of steps you need to take to make it happen. This might mean saving a certain amount of money for a special event like your wedding. If you want to save $10,000 in one year, look at your budget and figure out what you need to cut to make that happen. You might also need to pick up more hours at work, a second job or practice more frugal living.

When I decided for the first time to stop living paycheck to paycheck I sold the new BMW I was driving and bought an old Ford Focus. That was one of the best decisions I've ever made. It allowed me to save an extra $800 per month. After a year I had almost $10,000 in the bank, which allowed me to start my business, Pixloo, that eventually was acquired.

3. Surround yourself with doers.

Birds of a feather certainly flock together, but you probably have more doer acquaintances and friends than you realize. Who are your five best friends? Dreamers feed off of each other, but if you’re around doers they will inspire you. The staunchest ones aren’t quick to indulge your dreamer tendencies and will want to know what your plan is. Remember: you are in charge of your support network.

4. Stop doing what doesn’t work.

You know Einstein’s definition of insanity, so why do you get stuck in that rut? If you’ve been dreaming about something but your attempts haven’t led to positive results, it is time to stop, reassess, figure out what’s wrong and try a fresh approach. You’ll never get anywhere making the same mistakes over and over again.

5. Assume everything will take longer and cost more.

One of the downsides of being a dreamer is that it is easy to think of everything as, well, easy during the dreaming stage. However, things have a tendency to take more money and time than you imagine. When writing down your action plan, increase time and money by ten percent and give yourself a buffer. The worst case scenario is you’ll succeed with time and money left over.

Don’t let your drive to be a doer brush your dreaming tendencies totally under the rug. It’s your source of inspiration, creativity. and means of reaching for the stars.

If you learn something in this article, feel free to comment below!

How To Generate Leads

I worked cold market MLM leads for years, and was blessed with great Success. The cold market can  be brutal, but also can be fun and easy if you know what to do.

What are some of the Success Secrets of working MLM leads?

1) Make sure you know who you are looking for.

What kind of person are YOU looking for? You need to make sure that the MLM lead knows that you are looking for a particular type of person, and that you would like to see if they qualify. The 5 traits you always look for are:

Ambitious.
Friendly.
Positive.
Leader.
Good communicator.

Let them know that those are the traits you are looking for, and the traits that have proven to be needed for Success in Network Marketing. Also, a good track record of Success helps as well.

2) Always give them an Exit Strategy.

Make sure that you let them know they are free to end the call anytime they choose. There are many ways to do this, but my favorite way is the FEEL FREE tactic we teach at PassionFire School of Network Marketing.

People will perceive with an Exit Strategy that there is NO pressure and that you are not trying to do anything except hold a conversation with them.

"And feel free anytime during our conversation to end this call if you feel that this is something that simply is not right for you. Does that sound fair enough?"

3) Keep the topic, focus, and conversation about them.

Ask, ask and ask more questions about the MLM lead. They want to see if you are interested in THEM, not just recruiting them. Ask about their family, where they live, the type of work they do, what they like to do in their spare time, what kind of spare time they have, what kind of money they are looking out of a home business, why they are looking at a home business, and what kind of Success are they expecting if they start a home business.

"Tell me about yourself" is the ULTIMATE Cold Market MLM Lead opening phrase that can be magic in MLM Cold Market recruiting.

4) Your first priority is to RELAX the prospect, then CONNECT to them.

You MUST Relax the MLM Lead if you are going to be on the phone with them and hold a conversation with them. How do you do that? get them talking about themselves, and you MUST come across as totally relaxed and in control as well.

Then find some things you have in common with the MLM lead, and connect with them on those things. It could be knowing someone in their city or state, same hobby, same type of family, same school attended, same industry you work in,etc. Find something to CONNECT with them, and it will be easier for them to connect to you.

5) Let them know that you only need 1 minute of their time.

We found that if you simply say, "I really only need 1 minute of your time, as I am not sure this is something that would be right for you or not," that will open them up much more to listen, and you will find that most people will appreciate the respect you just showed for their time.

Many people are kept on the phone for 15,20,30 minutes at a time. Don't do that. Set yourself apart from the crowd. Give them a timeline, and stick to it. If they find that you have something they might be interested in, you will know it. Say, "Is this making sense to you?" They will let you know if it is.

There are many great ways to create Success in MLM leads and in the cold market, but these 5 tips are the start of what you need to do in order to create a solid start with your MLM Lead and Cold market prospect.

Thank you for reading. As always, if you find value in these emails, please share them with your friends.

Difference Between Affiliate Marketing and Multi-Level Marketing (MLM)

There are many people in the world, whether they frequent the internet or not, that make the mistake of saying that affiliate marketing and MLM or multi level marketing, are one and the same. They are, in actual fact, totally different, and here is a brief reason why. 

First, MLM marketing has been around for a lot longer than most people think. This type of marketing can be done offline, and many people still do today when selling baby products for someone else. This is what a multilevel marketer does. They become associated with a certain product that they like or believe in, which they then buy from their supplier and resell to the public at a profit. As you can see, MLM is simply having a small franchise of a large business. 

The reason that it is called MULTI level marketing is because if you are a marketer, you can then start your own chain of marketers. This is called a down line. What would happen is that you buy your products from your supplier at a discounted price and sell them at market value, but if you have a friend that also wants to start this business he or she can buy their batch of products directly from you, instead of going to your supplier. In this way you can make more money, because you will sell them to him or her at a slightly higher rate in order to make a profit. 

This can continue, but what most people do not realize is that the further down the line you go, the less money you make. This type of marketing technique can be difficult to sustain for a long period of time. 

Affiliate marketing is totally different. You are not selling any products directly. You are simply the mouthpiece, or the advertising board that tells people where to go and buy products. You will not have to purchase anything, but you will still make money just for telling people where to go to get a product. Affiliates get a commission when the person that they refer to a website buys something, so in this way the company is paying for a good lead and they will pay generously. 

Another difference between affiliates and MLM's is that all affiliates get paid the same amount of commission. Instead of people joining on the bottom of a line, they join into an adjacent line. You can find that affiliates will get paid an extra amount if they refer more affiliates, but this will be a once off commission and they will not have any further dealings with the affiliate. Sometimes companies will reward affiliates who get other affiliates by paying a small commission when their affiliate generates a sale. This amount however, is totally separate to the new affiliate's amount. They will still get paid as much as older affiliates. 

If you think about it this way; the MLM style of marketing is direct sales for a product, whereas affiliate marketing is an advertisement telling people where to buy a product.

Learn How To Rise in Failures

There are a lot of great entrepreneurs out there, but one of my favorites is Thomas Edison. I think I’m such a fan because, like me, he failed so much more than he succeeded. Of course, he learned how to turn those failures into golden lessons.

When I was a kid, we learned about Thomas Edison in school. When I told my rich dad that we were studying Edison’s life, he asked me if they’d taught me how he became so prolific. “No,” I replied. “We only learned about how he invented the light bulb.” “Well, I'm sorry to contradict your teacher,” rich dad said. “But, Thomas Edison didn’t invent the light bulb.”

Rich dad explained that there were many other people who had invented light bulbs before Edison. The problem was that these light bulbs were not practical. They would die out too soon. Also, these inventors could not explain why a light bulb was commercially valuable.

In short, they had a great idea, but they didn’t have a business. Edison, on the other hand, not only invented a better light bulb, but he also built a business around it. He invented the first useful light bulb and he knew how to show its value.

Anyone can have a great idea, but only a great entrepreneur can make money with that idea. You probably have a great idea or product too. Just about everyone does. But do you know how to make money with it?

If you have the courage to pursue your idea, start with baby steps. Start with research, talking to people and flushing out your idea. Once you have figured out how to make money, THEN the fun begins. But, start with step one.

Thank you for reading. As always, if you find value in these emails, please share them with your friends.

Salvador Gaviola III

How to Start a Business Online

There is a proven sequence of steps you can follow to guarantee your success when you're starting a small business online. I've seen thousands of people start and grow successful businesses by doing the following:

1. Find a need and fill it.
2. Write copy that sells.
3. Design and build an easy-to-use website.
4. Use search engines to drive traffic to your site.
5. Establish an expert reputation for yourself.
6. Follow up with your customers and subscribers with e-mail.
7. Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling.

Anyone, from newbie to seasoned online entrepreneur, can benefit from this process in learning how to start a business online.

Step 1: Find a need and fill it

Most people who are just starting out make the mistake of looking for a product first, and a market second.

To boost your chances of success, start with a market. The trick is to find a group of people who are searching for a solution to a problem, but not finding many results. The internet makes this kind of market research easy:

• Visit online forums to see what questions people ask and what problems they're trying to solve.
• Do keyword research to find keywords that a lot of people are searching, but for which not many sites are competing.
• Check out your potential competitors by visiting their sites and taking note of what they're doing to fill the demand. Then you can use what you've learned and create a product for a market that already exists--and do it better than the competition.

Step 2: Write copy that sells

There's a proven sales copy formula that takes visitors through the selling process from the moment they arrive to the moment they make a purchase:

1. Arouse interest with a compelling headline.
2. Describe the problem your product solves.
3. Establish your credibility as a solver of this problem.
4. Add testimonials from people who have used your product.
5. Talk about the product and how it benefits the user.
6. Make an offer.
7. Make a strong guarantee.
8. Create urgency.
9. Ask for the sale.

Throughout your copy, you need to focus on how your product or service is uniquely able solve people's problems or make their lives better. Think like a customer and ask "What's in it for me?"

Step 3: Design and build your website

Once you've got your market and product, and you've nailed down your selling process, now you're ready for your small-business web design. Remember to keep it simple. You have fewer than five seconds to grab someone's attention--otherwise they're gone, never to be seen again. Some important tips to keep in mind:

• Choose one or two plain fonts on a white background.
• Make your navigation clear and simple, and the same on every page.
• Only use graphics, audio or video if they enhance your message.
• Include an opt-in offer so you can collect e-mail addresses.
• Make it easy to buy--no more than two clicks between potential customer and checkout.
• Your website is your online storefront, so make it customer-friendly.

Step 4: Use search engines to drive targeted buyers to your site

Pay-per-click advertising is the easiest way to get traffic to a brand-new site. It has two advantages over waiting for the traffic to come to you organically. First, PPC ads show up on the search pages immediately, and second, PPC ads allow you to test different keywords, as well as headlines, prices and selling approaches. Not only do you get immediate traffic, but you can also use PPC ads to discover your best, highest-converting keywords. Then you can distribute the keywords throughout your site in your copy and code, which will help your rankings in the organic search results.

Step 5: Establish an expert reputation for yourself

People use the internet to find information. Provide that information for free to other sites, and you'll see more traffic and better search engine rankings. The secret is to always include a link to your site with each tidbit of information. 

• Give away free, expert content. Create articles, videos or any other content that people will find useful. Distribute that content through online article directories or social media sites.
• Include "send to a friend" links on valuable content on your website.
• Become an active expert in industry forums and social networking sites where your target market hangs out.

You'll reach new readers. But even better, every site that posts your content will link back to yours. Search engines love links from relevant sites and will reward you in the rankings.

Step 6: Use the power of e-mail marketing to turn visitors into buyers.

When you build an opt-in list, you're creating one of the most valuable assets of your online business. Your customers and subscribers have given you permission to send them e-mail. That means:

• You're giving them something they've asked for.
• You're developing lifetime relationships with them.
• The response is 100 percent measurable.
• E-mail marketing is cheaper and more effective than print, TV or radio because it's highly targeted.

Anyone who visits your site and opts in to your list is a very hot lead. And there's no better tool than e-mail for following up with those leads.

Step 7: Increase your income through back-end sales and upselling 

One of the most important internet marketing strategies is to develop every customer's lifetime value. At least 36 percent of people who have purchased from you once will buy from you again if you follow up with them. Closing that first sale is by far the most difficult part--not to mention the most expensive. So use back-end selling and upselling to get them to buy again:

• Offer products that complement their original purchase.
• Send out electronic loyalty coupons they can redeem on their next visit.
• Offer related products on your "Thank You" page after they purchase.

Reward your customers for their loyalty and they'll become even more loyal.

The internet changes so fast that one year online equals about five years in the real world. But the principles of how to start and grow a successful online business haven't changed at all. If you're just starting a small business online, stick to this sequence. If you've been online awhile, do a quick review and see if there's a step you're neglecting, or never got around to doing in the first place. You can't go wrong with the basics.