I watched the “Private Lives” episode of House last evening…the story line was a blogger who could would NOT make a decision about her treatment without consulting her bloggers.

Needless to say it was frustrating on her boyfriends  part. As I watched the episode unfold–I thought about the many, many folks who rely on other peoples opinions in their decision making process.

Don’t get me wrong–I have been guilty…

But some of you won’t make a move about your business without first listening to every Tom, Dick, and Mary’s opinion. That in my opinion sorry I had to throw that in is just a deadly business mistake.

You’re going to listen to your family, friends, co-workers, their friends, their family…and use those opinions in your business decisions.

So here is my take on this…

If you’re thinking about starting a business online–do what you would do if you were going to start a traditional offline business.

Get your ducks in a row

Put together a solid business plan

Create a marketing strategy

Draft your vision and mission statements

Create solid financial statements (based on research–NOT opinions)

Establish a name

Treat your business as though your financial health depended on it…

and then

GET TO WORK–PUT IT IN ACTION!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject. Did you watch that House episode?

A few years ago I had the pleasure of listening to Mamie McCollough and she talks about how she asked her students to bring cans to school–yes cans–any size, type–it didn’t matter.

She spent the evening cutting out eyes from magazines–the next day she asked her student to paste the eyes to the cans that they brought in…

The result? Everybody had an “I Can”

You can too…If you click on the Mamie’s website you’ll see that she has created a can label–you can use that.

Or if you’d like to have my designer create your very own “I Can” with your name and website on it…you can use paypal and send $10 to have my designer create your very own “I Can”!

My “I Can” is my desktop! So that’s what I see every morning and well so does my family.

Leave your comments and feel free to retweet!

Recently I attended Joe Schroeder and Diane Hochman’s Wisdom School in Newark, NJ. I was there as a guest–but I received more value in the workshop than I have in a long time from any other self-proclaimed “guru” on the web.

Joe has a tell it like it is teaching style. He released his new book “Disciplines of Doership” and I gotta say “Wow, wow, wow!”

Here is a taste of the chapters:

• What is the secret to those with an electric personality? Page 90
• Why do smart, educated people start, stop, fail and then never follow through? What is the FAILURE PROGRAM? Page 134
• Why do work-a-day people get irritated by the use of the word rich? Why trying to “BE RICH” anger the masses? Page 78
• Why does goal setting not work for most people? What is the secret to goal setting that no other book has ever revealed that would unleash 1,000,000 people? Page 112

I LOVE this book–

You can get your copy today BEFORE they come out publicly (19.95)–but you gotta let me know fast–I only have 11 copies available. Use the link below to get your copy–I’ll pay shipping for ya–but again I ONLY have 11 copies.

Oh and this inspired me to have my graphic designer create my own “Tomb Stone” where I buried the words–I Can’t!

Please leave your comments–I would love to hear from you.

In my tradition of de-cluttering my life, in-box, and everything else so I can concentrate on what I do best–I unsubscribed from all the self-proclaimed guru’s newsletters today.

Oh boy, did it feel good. Am I afraid I’m going to miss something? Nope, I’ve decided to hang out at ONE place–the Warrior Forum and of course Facebook–I can learn everything I need to know–and truth be told they are more willing to share than the self-proclaimed guru’s out there.

I started looking at the 100 or so newsletters I’m subscribed to and decided to start un-subscribing if they didn’t start sharing value instead of trying to pitch all their own products in every single freakin’ email I received from them.

I stayed on with a few…

Randy Gage–No, I’m not in his program–but he is a very smart marketer

Diane Hochman–I love this lady!

Mike Dillard

Frank Kern–cuz he’s so f@#@$#@ smart

Jeff Schuman–cuz he writes kick-ass articles!

Jason Better (You know he is not real right–well he is real–but his name is oh shoot I forgot?)

Joe Schroeder–great things happening here

Some I unsubscribed from:

Howie Schwartz–sorry I just can’t stand getting not one, not two, but even more emails from you a day!

Michael Rasmussen–sorry but you had to go–hadn’t seen any real value posts lately.

Dani Johnson–I like her but I like Diane better

And many, many more…

Soooo with that said…I hope you too will consider the email junk that keeps you from staying focused. I promise you’ll make more money if you clean up the clutter in your in-box.

I’m riding on the backs of the “gurus”. What does that mean?

I found a tool–that allows me to build my list virally. Let’s face it we all want a big list, right?

How would you like to have the likes of Mike Filsaime, Jeff Dedrick, and 4 more other master list builders helping you to build your list? In my mind it’s a Joint Venture in the simplest of formats.

Anyway, hop on over to my Viral Secret website to see how this works.

I feel like I am finally getting a lot of things accomplished this week. I’m going to tell you why.

I stopped multi-tasking. I’ve been reading Tim Ferris’ The Four Hour Workweek and while I do not believe that I could ever just work 4 hours a week–some of the principles that he teaches have saved me hours of work AND given me more time to finish more tasks.

One of the things he teaches is to make a list the night before of the things you absolutely must complete the next day–I used to do that sporadically–now I do it everyday before I shut down my computer–a WRITTEN list–not an electronic list. And I circle the two most important tasks that MUST be accomplished the next day.

Those are the two tasks that I work on FIRST–I look at my list and I ask myself: “What two tasks can I complete tomorrow that will get me a check?”

And I do them before I do anything else the next day…I get more tasks finished in a few hours than I used to all day.

Another thing he teaches is to NOT open your email first thing in the morning–why? Because instead of working on the two tasks that you need to work on you end up answering all the emails, etc. and never get to the two tasks that were the most important.

O.K. I have to admit–I haven’t broken that habit yet–but I am working on it.

I used to keep my email open all day–and I know I checked it 100 times a day–now once I read the emails, respond, etc. I shut down my email, my skype, my facebook, my twitter and I go to work…

Try it tomorrow–write down the tasks that you absolutely must finish tomorrow–your list can be longer–just circle the two more important ones–and tomorrow work on those FIRST. Don’t open up facebook, don’t open up tweetdeck, NOTHING until those tasks are complete.

So try this for a few days and let me know your experience–just leave a comment–I guarantee you’ll get more done tomorrow…

One last thing before I go:

My freebie site of the week: JotThisDown a very cool site…check it out.

I tested and it passed. The other day one of my FB friends posted a link–and I checked it out–I liked what I saw–but I wanted to test it before I sent this out to all of you.

If you like viral list builders–then you’ll enjoy this tool. Not all the tools I use earn placement on my Resources page; but this one did.

After I signed up for the software–I sent out a message (broadcast) about joining my Facebook Fan page–from the one broadcast I got 20+ more fans. So I think this one is a keeper.

Check it out and watch the video–if you are like me and are looking for more ways to build your list–I think you’ll like this tool.