This is one of those posts where I get to see if you ever really watch the videos I put here or not. You won’t even have to watch it all; just enough of it so you get the answer. However, I think if you’re astute, and of course you are because you come here, you’re going to be really smart and possibly figure it out without watching the entire video. If I see someone guess though, it means they didn’t watch the video and I’ll be deleting those comments because, for this one time, I want you to check out the video.
All of us get to define what success is in our own minds. All of us want to be successful; no one goes into a life or business and says “I want to be mediocre”. Even if you want to be the best you can be in what you do that’s a goal that’s better than “I just want to survive”. Yeah, I know some people will say that but I’m going to say I doubt that anyone really believes that.
If you do, this isn’t the post for you and I’m already depressed for you. 🙂
Is there a major secret to success? You bet there is. I can tell you what the secret isn’t though.
It’s not knowledge. Some of the smartest people in the world never become successful. Supposedly 80% of Mensa level people never make much money or have much happiness in their lives.
It’s not perseverance. That would be nice wouldn’t it, saying that if I put my time in and do the best I can that I’ll be successful. Many people who try to make a living online work upwards of 16 to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week. Not all that many of them are successful. Ask a lawyer who makes $300,000 a year but puts in that many hours if they feel successful; you’ll be amazed at how many of them will say no.
It’s not talent. That one’s depressing because there are a lot of talented people in the world who only have a few people that know about it. There are some great people online who write some amazing things, but an overwhelming majority of them, which includes me here, aren’t successful.
What is the ultimate secret to success? Watch the video below; I promise it’s painless. 😉
I think talent, marketing, perseverance, knowledge and hard work definitely help, can’t see someone having success without them, but indeed great point, we need to sell, selling is what makes money, convincing people you are worth the money.
As you said, you won’t get any dates if you don’t ask.
I must say, very inspirational! Thanks!
Thanks Christian. It’s not the hard sell of course but we have to be ready to promote ourselves, our products, our services and whatever else every once in awhile and definitely when needed. Without that we’re never going to have a chance to succeed at anything.
I first went into business over thirty years ago and I believe that we run that business very successfully. We were so successful that we closed our competitor down within two years and we did it through hard work and dedication. But that wasn’t what made it for us.
What made it was the customer service we provided our customers and more importantly the interaction we provided. I suppose you could say thats the reason I interact so well with my commentators.
Perhaps you could say we sold ourselves, but not by telling people how good we are but by showing them that we were. I know I am good at what I do but I’ve never been one to sell myself. Heck, I don’t think I will ever be able to do that. It’s just not in me.
Sire, the thing is without selling you’d have never gotten the opportunity to show that you were good. That’s the thing; at some point you or your brother had to ask for the gig. Sometimes we don’t even go that far; we just think someone’s going to hire us or work with us for our good looks (well, yours of course lol) but life doesn’t work like that unless you’re a supermodel.
But we didn’t have to sell ourselves to succeed, we just had to provide great service. Naturally, that service always came with a smile 😉
Sire, you wouldn’t have ever gotten the opportunity to prove you could succeed if you hadn’t first sold yourself; that’s kind of my point. Yes, you succeed later on with proficiency and attention to detail, but without that first step you’re just someone with a lot of good intentions and talent waving in the wind.
Sorry Mitch, I must be thick or something because I just can’t see it. Where exactly did I sell myself?
Did you just show up one day in your business & start working, hoping the guy would pay you? I’m assuming not. I’m assuming you & your brother put in some kind of bid to get the contract to do the work, whether you had to compete against someone else or not. Or like the job you have now; did you just start working at that store without the guy’s knowledge or was there a vetting process of some kind? In both cases, even if you said they just came to you & asked you to work for them (which I doubt; life doesn’t usually work that way), they had to know about you somehow right? And why choose you over someone else? No choices?
That’s what I’m saying. You or family weren’t just sitting at home and one day had someone come by and give you a contract; you had to do something to get noticed. That’s selling, maybe not in what you consider the traditional sense but it is, and that’s what my video is about. You DID watch the video, right? lol
Actually we did. We saw it was for sale and we approached the owner with an offer which he accepted. He stayed with us for a week to show us what was involved and then we were on our own. He wasn’t interested in us, just in our money.
Yes I did watch the video, all the way through too.
In other words, you walked into a business that already had clients?
Of course, that way you know what it’s taking, can see how it’s being run and can work out as to whether or not you can improve on it’s performance. Less of a risk that just starting one up.
Sire,
I think you’ve missed the point. You walked into a business with clients, already up and running. Most people don’t start with that and that is what Mitch is talking about. Those people who start businesses (from scratch) with no client base have to build up a business. In order to build up a business, you must sell yourself or brand yourself. People need to know you, like you and trust you before they become your client. You were one of the lucky ones if you had clients and you just ‘walked’ in and started working, but I guarantee you in your first few weeks or months, you had to sell yourself because otherwise you would have lost the customers and clients you already had. Maybe a marketing course is in order. 🙂
Hi,
Enjoyed the video. It’s too bad that talent, perseverance and hard work are not what makes you successful but that’s the world we live in.
Developing the skill sets necessary for selling is possible and I’m working to develop these.
You can become more effective in selling but it takes practice and some knowledge about the psychology of what makes people buy. Buying is emotional and there are ways to push those buttons.
Your video was good and that’s one of the ways to break down an emotional barrier and opens the door for selling online.
Thanks for you observation about what is success.
Tonya
Thanks Tonya. I’m with you, it’s too bad talent and skills can’t get it done but all of us need to find ways of convincing someone that we’re capable so they’ll give us a chance. What a life; then again, I think that’s how it’s always been.
Hi Mitch
Selling, yes I did watch the video. You are so right. Without selling we make no impressions on anyone. We sell ourselves all the time, even when we say hello to someone. But it is hard to sell when we really need to, it is like we are apologizing. I really don’t think we are here to give and give of ourselves without ever trying to make money. If that was the case we would just be better to go out and join some group and meet people in person. A lot less work in the long run.
I remember walking into a little dress shop in Reno and thought after I got in there it was a big waste of time. Trying to not make my retreat so obvious I did respond to the nice lady when she talked to me. She didn’t ask what I wanted she just showed me this dress, it was pretty enough. But I really didn’t want to try it on. She smiled and encouraged me to just try it on and never made me feel like I would need to buy it. I put it on and she was very sweet. She made me believe it was my decision to buy the dress. She did a fantastic job of selling. I guess you would call it the soft sell. You are right it is always about selling. Once we can master that in all walks of life there will be no stopping us.
Great post and video. It is not about marketing it is about selling.
Mary
What a wonderful comment Mary; thanks for that. Yes, we always need to be selling in some fashion, even if it’s not a hard sell to get people to buy stuff. And yet most of us don’t do it or won’t do it and then we wonder why we’re not succeeding. I put me into this category because I’m pretty bad at selling myself as well. At least I’m acknowledging it. 🙂
Okay, I would agree with you on that one Mitch because to me I’m always selling myself. Whenever anyone would tell me coming into the online industry that they hate selling and don’t want to do it than that’s one thing I remind them about.
If you can sell yourself to where people will get to know, like and trust you then you’ve gotten over half the battle won. I mean to me that’s the most important part to this puzzle.
Good video and I hope you didn’t have to delete too many posts.
~Adrienne
Adrienne, I didn’t have to delete a single comment believe it or not. It seems that the new comment policy is keeping that down a lot, though I can’t figure out why so many long time commenters like you are going into the spam filter these days.
You actually follow a method that’s recommended by some marketers, though probably not nearly enough. You promote other people a lot, and that gets them comfortable with you. It’s all about giving people what they need and that’s a great way to market.
Wonderful post! I definitely think that the video was great. It is very much informative. I also agree to what you have mentioned about selling yourself definitely will help you become known and eventually be successful. Thank you for this post. I really enjoyed watching the video.
Thanks Sandra, and thanks for watching the video as well. He never really do progress without knowing how to sell ourselves at different times of our lives do we?
Great video Mitch. It is true the secret to success is “selling”. Knowing how, what, and where to do this is not an easy venture.
Being yourself works and having the right product is also a big plus. Many struggle with those two points…Maybe a future post on how to excel with salesmanship?
Thanks for sharing
Thanks Paul. I’ll do that post when I figure out how to do it. lol
@ Barbara
Actually Barbara, that depends on the business you buy. The fact that we bought an existing business does not guarantee success. I know of people who have done so and run it to the ground. Nothing to do with not being able to sell themselves either, just poor business practice.
As for selling ourselves, we did that by providing good customer service and interacting with the customers. We listened to them and joked around with them. We could have just as easily gone broke, as others have, if we had run things differently.
Something else that helped us was the experience we had gained from our previous employment.
Hi Mitch,
You’re absolutely right, selling is the key. You can do everything else right and not make a dime if you can’t sell. On the flip side, you can be pretty poor at everything else and still get by if you’re good at selling to the few people you do get in front of.
That’s why I think copywriting is such an important skill to have. Selling affects everything we do in our lives and the better we are at convincing and influencing others, the more successful we’ll be. I really think copywriting is one of, if not the most, vital skills a young entrepreneur can develop.
Great post, my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Have a great rest of the week!
~Barry
Thanks Barry. You might be right on that copywriting thing in that it gets people to take action. And yet, I think the way it was done for online sales in the past won’t work today, so it says that even copywriting has to modify itself for the times.
Live in the moment. And be happy with whatever you have, even if that’s very little.