One of the biggest prerequisits to more good things into your life is to become a river of resources. This is something that I learned from Mike Adams of Natural News. He said in a book titled 3 Steps to Success with the Amazon Herb Company “You’ve got to give, have an open heart and be willing to invest in others around you in order to attract more abundance to yourself.”

Before I’d heard about this principle, I had experienced it in my own life on accident. My friends live in Philadelphia and they had run into a bit of trouble last holiday season when the apartment complex that they lived in burned down and they lost everything. Unfortunately, they did not have the resources for something like this. In fact, they were actually expecting a second child only a few weeks later. He wasn’t sure what to do.

When I heard about this tragedy, my first response was to see what I could do to help them. His reply was to send him $5,000… I said, “Ok, give me about a few hours.” Now I didn’t straight up give him $5,000. Using my knowledge of social media and some resources available, they had a fundraiser setup in a couple of hours. After telling my social media network about what happened, it went viral in no time. They ended up getting a little over $3,700 through this fundraiser and tons of other donations of baby items/gift cards/etc…

After doing this for them and helping the resources flow to them without asking for a single thing in return, things just started coming to me like never before. Money came in from different channels like never before. New clients came on board, moving back to Costa Rica became real and great new relationships rushed into my life.

I’m telling you this story because most people don’t give first before asking, but it’s been proven time and time again that it’s the surest path to getting what you want. When you are selfish and hoard, you create a dam of resources that make you become stagnant. And if you’re even reading this then I know you don’t want that.

And this isn’t just to tell you to give your money. Give your talents to those in desperate need of them like my friend was. Give your knowledge to those seeking advice through blog posts. Give your time to good causes in need of volunteers. Anything that selflessly helps another with no intentions of being repaid…

Give what you can when you can and you’ll be happy you did.

Would love to hear your thoughts on this below…

Pura Vida!

Once you have that big why… You’ll be unstoppable. It’s imperative that you really put some thought into this because it’ll be what gets you through all the struggles and tough times of building a business.

Seriously before you start any business venture, you better answer this question…

What’s your big why? Answer below in the comments area.

One of the biggest roadblocks to people reaching success in their life isn’t a technical issue or a business setback. It’s right in their own heads. They allow opinions from people who have and will do nothing in their own lives to take precedence over their own beliefs that they can be successful.

I’ll admit that this was once a huge problem for me. Even as soon as last year, there were certain people giving me opinions that were not in my best interest. But because I didn’t follow these 3 steps, their opinions had me back tracking on my road to being a success with my business.

It won’t be easy to completely turn off these useless opinions. They will come from long time friends and even family. People who think they are looking out for you. But really what they are doing is trying to bring you down so they don’t have to feel bad about not being successful.

I’m reading this great book “The 12 Factors of Business Success” that was given to me by one of my mentors, Justin Brooke. There’s a chapter in here about Mastering Criticism and it lays out 3 steps to getting over what other people think about the path you’ve chosen. Let’s take a look at these steps.

1. Define Yourself

You have to be true to who you are. It’s about knowing who you are at the core and then living that. You have to know what value it is that you bring to the marketplace and deliver on it. It’s not an easy task defining yourself. It takes a lot of work noticing when you aren’t acting in line with your core self and then fixing that. By defining yourself, you’ll know who you are, what you’re doing and how you’re going to get there. This will allow you to disregard other people’s definitions of who you are because in the end only one person’s definition matters and that’s YOURS!

2. Take a Stand

Know without a doubt why you are doing what you’re doing. Don’t just take someone else’s reason and adopt it. Make your own! A great quote from the book, “The fact is if you don’t stand up for your convictions and your passions, you’ll wimp out and fold when you are challenged.” No one else care about what you are passionate about unless you stand for it no matter what others say. People will respect your stand even if they don’t agree if it’s coming from a place deep inside your core being.

3. Take Directed and Continuous Action

Now that you know who you are, why you’re taking certain actions and willing to take that stand… it’s time to make it all count! You have your path set out in front of you, you just have to walk it every single day. Don’t get side tracked and don’t make up excuses that you can’t do it. Once people see you taking action every single day towards living the life you’re meant to live it’ll demand their respect. You’ll start noticing people sending you messages like “I like your style” (yes, I get this one all the time) and they’ll start following what you’re doing. In fact many will be helping you accomplish your dreams and goals because they will feel your passion. They will know that you are serious about achieving it and you’ll be viewed as a thought leader. At that point, you are on your way to massive success as long as you continue taking directed and continuous action.

So many people in my life like to give me excuses of why they aren’t living the life they dream of…

It’s either they have kids so now they’re limited, they have a dog they can’t move with or the worst excuse of them all.. don’t have the money to live their dream lifestyle.

In my opinion, the only thing limiting people is they don’t want it bad enough. When you really want something, you think and do anything to get it.

Here’s a video that sums up my feeling on this subject:

It truly is about wanting something soooo bad that you’re willing to lose sleep until you have it. Too many people wait for the “perfect situation” to come along and just hand them what they want…

If you want it, just go get it!

Branding Yourself

Whether you realize it or not, your personal brand is constantly being projected through your everyday interactions with the people around you and your online communications. Most of us understand the term branding when we discuss a company’s marketing efforts, but what some fail to realize is that our personal brands are very similar and have a big effect on our lives. This has become especially true with the new opportunities for online branding through sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Be Yourself

Branding yourself is so much deeper than just a logo or a picture. It is who you are in your core and it can not be faked or made up. People have become more aware of fakes and if you want to lose credibility quickly, then act like someone you are not and see what happens.

Being authentic is the number one best way to build trust with people. This is something that I have noticed often with my Twitter account. I have received multiple direct messages telling me how appreciated it is that I say what I want to say and that I am who I am. My personal online branding efforts have come from what I know best and my personality. This can be seen in almost every single thing that I do online.

Figuring Out What Your Brand Is

What are your core values, beliefs and passions in life? This will start to give you an idea of who you are deep inside. Don’t lie to yourself. Once you figure this out, start thinking about how can begin to incorporate these into your online activities.

How do others view you? Ask people to give you just a few words that describe you. This will give you an idea of the brand that you have been projecting and how different or similar it is to what you wanted.

Be Aware of Your Brand

While it is very important to be yourself and be authentic at all times, it is also important to remember that your online activities are public. And when I say public, I mean anyone in the world can see it. Keep this in mind with everything you do online.

What has amazed me is the increasing use of the Internet in the hiring process. Many companies are now making hiring decisions based on what they learn about the perspective employee through their social media accounts. Twitter and Facebook now give these companies more information about the applicant than the resume does.

Stand Out From the Herd

One of the most important parts of your personal brand is identifying what makes you different, unique and memorable from the vast amount of people out there. No two people are alike and you need to show why.

There is so much noise out there these days and it is impossible to listen to all of it. People may hear your message, but you want them to attentively listen to it. This is done through seperating yourself from the noise with your unique twist and viewpoint.

Business Owners

While your companies brand is important, the human branding is more critical. Most small business thrive off the the owner’s brand more than the companies. People come to your business because they know, like and trust YOU first. Please keep this in mind in your marketing.

I would really like to hear what you think about online branding yourself. Please share your thoughts and let’s start the conversation.