Day 23: Our Online Business

For the past couple of days, we’ve been reading a lot of books. As far as I can remember I read almost three books in three weeks time. It’s a bit slow you might say but I like to note that I’m still have my Monday to Friday work, my blog posts daily, my daily conversations with my family, my weekend activities and preparations to my first ever Internet Marketing Workshop event. Starting on Sunday, I’ll be reading my fourth book for the 90 day challenge. It is about internet marketing, a book form Seth Godin entitled Meatball Sundae. From the stories I’m hearing from Edel, I know it’ll definitely help us a lot.

I developed a technique to fast read a book. How? When buying, always buy two books at a time with the same thickness or size. Since you have two books, decide which book you’re going to read then have a bookworm buddy (preferably your partner in life or someone you can trust and has the same reading speed as you) who will borrow the other book that you have bought. By the way, the books must also be on the same genre so that story telling (exchange of ideas) will complement each other.

This happened today. It feels like, I’m reading meatball sundae when in fact I’m reading All Marketers are liars. Well these two books are great match for what I want to pursue. Thanks to Tito Tony.

Speaking on what we will be pursuing, we will be devoting our time, energy and resources to find enough materials for us to become an internet marketer. We will be focusing our attention to social media. We will be marketing an affiliate product which is close to our hearts and which helped us a lot in so many ways.

We’re targeting it to be launched next week. We’ll read more stuff for the meantime. Here’s the plan, we will be looking out for techniques on how to sell online through the use of social media. We’ll do the research until Friday. Saturday or Sunday in our Starbucks Experience (with Edel) we will discuss the steps we’ll do. Then on the first Monday of August, we will be creating materials for that one. Then as soon as we completed it, we’ll launch it.

Watch out for it. I’ll be updating you every step of the process.

For the mean time, here’s something worth sharing about social media. This sets of video helped me understand what social media is all about and how we can maximize it for our business.

See you on tomorrow’s post.

eLviN

Day 22 – Thinking Aloud!

I’m actually out of words today. Edel and I are thinking of new strategies on how to introduce financial literacy to companies. We’ve been doing this for so long and for the longest time we’ve been procrastinating and entertaining things that would divert us to not pursuing it.

Well today we’re back to planning stage and we’re doing this seriously.

We will be starting out a new website for financial literacy exclusive for companies.

We have a letter than will be distributed to companies.

We started building a list of companies and their HR managers.

We already have this statement “A real boss looks for solutions for the financial problem of his subordinates.”

We are currently studying different marketing techniques through Seth Godin’s books.

This weekend we’ll pull this off.

In case you have ideas to share, feel free to post your comments below.

Making things happen,

eLviN

Day 21: The truth about lies and the best marketing strategy

Yesterday, I bought two books from National Bookstore in Festival Mall Alabang. I bought Seth Godin’s two classic marketing books Meatball Sundae and All Marketers are Liars Story Tellers. These books were suggested by my mentor Tony Hilado.

I immediately read the All Marketers are Liars Story Tellers book. From the first page, I could not stop myself reading. I agree with the concepts Seth Godin presented. The way he delivered it was fantastic.

I have found a lot of good marketing strategy from that book.

I can say is that we all live in a world of lies but a good marketer believed in that lie. Godin presented one glass wine maker as an example. The glass wine maker claimed that the taste of any wine is better using his glass as compared to an ordinary glass. Obviously it’s a lie but lot of wine critics proved that the taste is really different. The wine in his $20 glass tastes really good as compared to an ordinary $1 glass.

So what are we missing here?

The answer is belief.

I have a story to tell. I have been an affiliate of International Marketing Group. I am amazed by the concepts presented during the wealth academy series. Every after the wealth academy series I am fired up. But there’s a problem. I don’t believe that I can sell. That’s why I don’t have sales. My limiting factor is belief. My limiting factor is my belief that I can’t do it.

There’s a saying that goes like this: “If you think you can do it, you’re right. If you think you can’t do it, you’re still right.”

So what’s the point?

My point is our beliefs depend on our own definition of truth. There’s no universal definition of truth (and lie). Truths and lies are all products of our mind. What we believe as true may be considered as a lie to others.

Bottomline is trust in what you believe in; live by it, share it, tell your story and eventually it will sell. That’s the best marketing strategy. That’s why Seth tells us that All Marketers Are Story Tellers.

Gotta read!

eLviN

Day 20: The First Mastermind Meeting!

Just got home from the first ever mastermind meeting here in Luzon.

I’m so excited. I’m looking forward to our next meeting which will happen Tuesday next week.

I’m happy to present that we have a future millionaire who is very passionate in SEO. I call him SEO Master Paul Tibayan!

The mastermind meeting focuses on the things that we do on a regular basis: our work, our families, our hobbies, etc. Then, the topic was diverted to SEO. I didn’t know that Paul is a SEO Specialist. I really learned a lot from him.

I really thought what I’m doing for my blog has an effective and proper SEO already but guess what, through the stories earlier I realized I can do a lot more. I can attract more visitors. I can gain more readers. I can gain more friends and the most important thing is I can inspire and reach more people through my stories.

Also, while writing this blog post, I realized I’m part of a team of great internet marketers. We have SEO expert for search engines, we have viral marketing experts for social networking sites like facebook, twitter etc, we have great stories to tell, we have a wide array of products to sell thus all I can say is that we have a great online marketing team. We will be conquering the Philippines, then the whole world because of this elite marketing team.

The ideas are there. The marketing team is there. They are all set.

Nothing can go wrong right? Yes. The only thing we need to do is act. We should act. We should act to promote our products. We should act to learn more about our field of expertise. We should act based on the talents we have. We should act to share our ideas to others. We should act to make things happen.

I should act. What’s stopping me?

See you on tomorrow’s post.

The man who wants things done,

eLviN

Day 19: Choice requires Action

This morning, I find it so hard to wake up. Well, the typical Monday blues is kicking on my system. I understand myself because I don’t have any exciting things to do at the office today. I’ll just compile and consolidate data, make some phone calls, do some checking at the system which we’re working and eat (the last two are one of the things I love doing at work). Ooops, I forgot. I checked the TVIExpress online and found out not so good stuffs about it. Well, I just recommend you to see for yourself and look for it in the internet.

Anyway, the 7 – 4 working hours went by. I did the things I need to do to finish my day at the office. At 4:15, I left.

I went straight to Edel’s house and shared my stories for the day. The things I did at work and the research I did about TVIExpress. She was surprised to hear about TVIExpress and still we are intrigued about the selling skills our friend has. We really need to see how she sells.

Anyway, after the story, I decided to read a portion of one minute millionaire to Edel. I read this portion to her.

Practice imagining yourself enjoying an abundant lifestyle. All great fortunes started in someone’s imagination. See yourself living in the home of your dreams, enjoying ideal relationships with friends and loved ones, contributing to the world through your own unique talents and abilities. Imagine the fortune you could create and the good it could do. Believe it and you will see it.

We stopped after reading the passage above.

She asked me, what do I imagine?

Honestly, I can’t imagine a thing. As of that moment, I can’t see myself having the fortune I want. I still believe that my psychological wallet could not contain that $1M. In short, the dream does not pressure me anything at all.

Then Edel noticed my silence. And she said that she understands. She told me that I haven’t made a choice that’s why I still can’t imagine my life in the future.

She’s right.

If I already chose a path, with my intellect, with my knowledge, with my skills I can go towards that path of greatness.

My excuse? I’m not living in the city. The opportunities here are not that much as compared to the metro area. People’s lifestyle here is very much different to the lifestyles in the metro. People here do not think financial freedom that much. They still have the employee mindset where in they work for a stable company who will provide them money every 15^th and 30^th day of the month.

Then it struck me. If my friend who lives here in Calamba bought shares in TVIExpress, then they are thinking of their financial freedom. This idea opened my eyes to the opportunity that I’m looking for. I debunked my own thoughts (that there’s minimal opportunity here as compared to the metro). There are a lot of people here in Calamba who wants to be financially free aside from us and my friend is a living proof.

So what’s left for me to do?

Choose from my inventory lists.

I should act based on what I choose. I choose to focused on this three things, Internet Marketing Workshop in Laguna, Wealth Academy in Laguna and Website creation projects.

Act, Act, Act!

eLviN

Day 18 : Business Opportunities

Instead of going to the Franchise Expo today, I decided to stay home and finish the office layout for my mom. It is actually a gift for me to talk to her about our family. It’s been a while since I talked to her about the relationships we have as a family. I’m happy that she opened up. I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m excited for more tasks from my family.

Also, I met a high school friend today. She introduced me to a new business she’s venturing. It’s called TVIExpress. It is a travel agency site which offers cash rewards for members who invited two more into the business. Though I’m not yet sure if it’s a good investment or what, I need to do some research first.

During our discussion, she told me that our friend (the one introduced the business to her) sold 3 shares ($900) while doing some bank transactions. She was in the bank when a lady asked her about her work. She shared her business (TVIExpress) and the lady was inspired. Right there she brought 3 shares. I was amazed. I need to talk to her to see how she did it.

You see, that’s what I think lacking from my skills pool. If there’s a seminar about selling, marketing and if it is online, I would definitely grab it.

This led me to the idea of my own company. I will call it ePop which stands for elvin peria online projects. The mission of the company is to provide websites for businesses (which is I’m passionate in doing) and to help them market their own sites / ideas (which uses SEO, social promotions etc). Also, it offers online tutorial how to market and how to create sites and how we do business.

Aside from these stuffs, here are my additional learnings for the day (we watched two movies today to relax our mind).

1. Real relationships are hard to find. If found, handle it with care. – Bulletproof
2. We all have bad bone but it doesn’t mean we ought to use it. – Igor
3. Neutrality opens us to more learnings. Bias leads us to stagnation.  

I will be having an exciting day tomorrow!

eLviN

A Journey to The $1 Million in 90 Days Challenge: Day 17 - Important – Forever and Stuff-Temporary

I’ve re-read Cash In A Flash by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert G. Allen. Right now, I’m in the part of chapter 6 : Empowering questions particularly on the Important – Forever and Stuff – Temporary. The book gave an exercise by John Ortberg. The exercise goes like this:

It’s 4:00PM in the afternoon and you have decided to head home. There are two pads of Post-its on your days. One says “Important –Forever” and the other says “Stuff-Temporary.” As you leave your office, put a Post-it on anything you see-your computer, your desk, your secretary, the soda machine, the receptionist, your car, your house, your spouse, your kids-anything you see. Which Post-it do you put on what or whom? What is important and what is stuff?

Understanding these concepts will eventually help us to value relationships more as compare to the things we own. It will also help us to be grateful to the things and relationships we have even if we lost some stuffs.

Of course we tag our health as important as well so we should make sure that we have enough sleep. Work and any other money making activities are just stuff. Even God created the earth for six days. He can do it in one day but he chose not to.

I must follow that as well.

Gotta sleep! Until tomorrow. 

eLviN

PS. In case you're near the Manila Area, the last day of the 2010 Franchise Expo will be tomorrow July 18. I want to attend the event but i choose not to. The reason? Important. More of this tomorrow.