Being highly effective isn’t just part of a catchy book title, however habits have a lot to do with it – but more with your habits towards your team and how you prioritize life.

In order to reach any kind of real success you need to have organization and a systematic way of doing things that makes the best use of your time regardless of the task at hand.

As your business grows this means understanding what to delegate to someone else, what to take on yourself and how to prioritize since there is only one true “number one” priority in the world (contrary to the belief of many mania driven leaders).

Characteristics of a highly effective person

I’m a big believer in the idea that in order to be rapidly successful, it’s best to do as those who are already successful do.

Even if those with success don’t realize what they are doing differently, inherently there is something about the way they go about their business that has made a material difference.

For instance, if your goal was to be the best chef in the world, then it would make the most sense to shadow chef’s who have already made it and see what their (sometimes intangible) “it factor” is.

While there are no doubt special circumstances where markets differ, I’ve found a few commonalities for what makes a highly successful person:

1. They have built a team of specialized people who are true experts in their craft
2. This team has been assembled to fulfill specific functions in the business
3. Highly effective people understand the constant constraint on their time
4. A majority of their business acts like cogs in a wheel to respond to real time demand
5. When it comes to personal life management, they have a black & white priority list

These factors alone won’t make you an overnight success, but applying these methodologies to how you run your operation will give you a great advantage compared to those who don’t understand these principles.

Picking the right team

Deciding who you can work with is the most crucial part of being highly effective.

As Steve Jobs used to point out, “You want a team of A players and A players want other A players around too. B players just attract C players and so on.”

If you are relaxed in the quality caliber person you allow into your organization, it becomes very easy to get bloated and inefficient at what you do.

Just like many others, I have made the mistake of hiring people I thought could “get the job done but keep the price down” which is like chasing unicorns.

It just doesn’t exist.

When you are finding the right team, make sure you hire the best that your money can buy.. and then go up one more notch.

No one will make your business more money and be more effective than having the highest caliber team, period.

How to automate your business

Business automation is important for two big reasons.

It lets you scale gracefully and give your users a consistent experience (that’s measured).

Deciding what the sequence will be for your products (the funnel), where your leads come from and how customers move from one milestone to the next gives you the measurable insight you need to make smart decisions.

There are so many tools out there to help you do this, and if you don’t understand them then go hire the right person who does.

Being able to measure and automate that flow is going to make every hour you spend running your business exponentially more effective.

This includes such simple things as creating automation rules to pay your bills every month.

Humans make errors (I do all the time!), and things just break down sometimes.

When you are able to take core fundamentals and break them down into simple to execute processes then you suddenly have a chance of winning.

This means solidifying what it is exactly that your company does, what you want to accomplish and what your value is to your customers.

It sounds simple, but you’d be shocked how many companies make products they don’t believe in just to sell something instead of solving an actual pain point.

Putting your personal priorities in check

Do you know the exact rank of priorities in your personal life?

Many have soft areas in their life that they can’t feel completely confident in making a clear distinction between what’s deemed more important.

If you can’t prioritize your personal life into simple “yes/no” prioritization’s, then how can you ever hope to get your business there too?

Luckily, there are so many “to-do” apps out there that help keep you in line.

My favorite however makes it painfully obvious which activities I should be doing over others through a ranking system.

It’s really a to-do app done right, and it’s called “Clear” by RealMac Software (the same guys who made my favorite screen capture app, LittleSnapper).

This app sorts each list my explicit priority and helps technology get out of the way of you getting things done.

I suggest you go download it now if you have an iPhone by clicking here. (That’s not an affiliate link, I just genuinely love the App).

Getting started

How are you going to setup your team to help you win?

What are you going to do differently to organize your personal life?

If you can’t up-level your team (or even create one to start with), organize your life or automate your business processes as best you can then you need to take some time to seriously think through how you are going to be the best provider of what you do in your craft.

There are a ton of people who love to tell you little tricks here and there to convert more visitors into subscribers.

I love reading them, and collectively they are super valuable because it’s definitely easier to capture more of your existing traffic than it is to get fresh faces (even though new traffic is what nearly every marketer obsesses over).

Plenty of startups have come out to focus on making the pre-launch process viral. For instance, LaunchRock comes to mind as a prime example and the results are huge.

But what happens after you’ve already launched your product, blog etc but just aren’t seeing anymore swells of sign-ups?

Big budget companies have been throwing money at developers to create a custom solution, and it’s almost always the same.

It’s a contest where you exchange your email for a chance to win, and sharing increases those chances.

Brilliant, except that it costs between 5k and 10k for most people to implement.

So we had an idea… what if we just forked over the cash ourselves to build a plugin that anyone could use for a reasonable price?

Why Contests Work

People will do almost anything on the internet for the magical price of free.

Not that this should be abused, or that it’s even bad for society, it’s just the way it is.

What people are ever more willing to do for free is start the snowball of inviting all their friends if it helps improve their chances of personal gain.

It’s the simple profit motive. Offer people what they want in exchange for the action you want as frictionless as possible for maximum results.

An argument could be made for the quality of leads you get from contests, but nearly every marketing expert will agree that at the end of the day more leads = more money/influence etc.

Introducing Contest Domination

I’ve been rolling this idea around in my head for a while, and it’s super close to going live for everyone to run their own contests with ease on WordPress.

Until we open the flood gates though, I wanted to do something a little fun.

I’m personally going to buy someone a full year of DropBox Pro (my favorite cloud storage solution), and I’m going to give it away using an early release candidate of the software so you can play around with it too.

To enter the contest and potentially score some DropBox Pro loving, go here and follow the instructions.

Feedback would be awesome as it’s not quite finished yet, but I’m excited to help the many of you who have been struggling with running contests to explode your lists with the current tools on the market.

We always hear a lot of buzz around mobile, how apps are changing the way of business, and seeing a ton of money move into the mobile sector. But have you ever really thought about how you spend time using your phone?

Here is an infographic from SMS Marketing company Tatango that illustrates exactly how people are using their smart phones:

It’s not uncommon for people to reach out to me and say things like “Internet marketing doesn’t work” or “it’s all a bunch of snake oil.. what gives?”. This is primarily because the term “marketing” has been so watered down by people who can’t articulate well (or don’t want to articulate well) what marketing is because it gives them a perceived upper hand in their relationship with clients.

I absolutely loathe that stance and want to help you cut through the crap.

Marketing, simply put, is the ability to find people who are genuinely interested in your product (because they have a need or an interest) and your product or service solves that need or inner desire.

Seriously folks, it’s that simple to understand.. If you walked into a room and asked everyone “who’s hungry?”, the people who raised there hands would be your interested individuals. If you were then able to either provide actual food, or at least link them to someone who could make the food and fulfill their core need then you were just an effective marketer.

Seems pretty easy right? Now what’s different with internet marketing and why it has such a bad reputation…

What’s Different

Internet marketing is slightly different because the value chain feels less tangible to a lot of people than a traditional business. What I mean by this is that, for many people, understanding the process of acquiring leads and creating customers in a virtual space is daunting, foreign and hard to conceptualize at first. But here are the key differences that should help you relate traditional business models to internet ones:

1. Just like brick and mortar, you need leads to make your business work.

What’s different: Leads come in the form of Names, Emails and/or Phone Numbers instead of literally walking through your door

2. You need something to sell your customer a product or service to make money

What’s different: Customers online have a much lower attention span, as a result of this you need to have a stack of continually higher margin items to offer them immediately after they purchase to maximize your revenue. This is known as an up-sell, or moving them “through the funnel”.

3. Customers want and need information from you to stay interested in being your customer.

What’s different: A brick and mortar business has to try and hire in-person sales people who try and be helpful to your customers while practicing ABC (Always Be Closing). Online you can use different ways of tracking and automated content strategies to tailor the experience of every customer in a way that you can test. This means you can have a known close rate and give your customers a consistently high level of value.

Why It’s Seen As Snake Oil

I’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the Internet Marketing space who have claimed huge numbers and it became apparent pretty quickly that most people at the top stretch their numbers to fit what they think people want to hear.

The messed up part? It works – as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You see, these types of people typically succeed by selling the dream instead of solving any actual problems. They will talk your ear off about how much “value” their customers see in their offerings, but once you understand the industry it doesn’t take long to see that the average customer is more of an info product junkie than a true entrepreneur.

It’s no wonder so many real businesses are turned off by Internet Marketing when that is the lay of the land.

Have you had any poor experiences with Internet Marketing? Let me know – I’d be happy to point you in a quality direction or help answer your questions.

People often ask me how I got started in the world of Internet Marketing and how I came to go from a broke high school smart ass, to making 60k over 2 months (legally), broke again and now living what I truly believe is the new American dream.

I work from home as a consultant, blog about the things that interest me most and I am able to spend time with a startup I am truly passionate about.

A good friend of mine, Brandon Na of Seattle Organic SEO invited me to tell the story live last night on his radio show so I thought I’d share it with you.

We go over how I hustled more money as a kid, got started early in technology and how you can make the most of your lifestyle situation.

What’s stopping you from building the business you really want to build? Let me know in the comments.

This video shows how breathtaking HDR (High Dynamic Range) video footage can make things look. This footage of a Chapel built in 1796 over in Poland almost looks like a video game because the cameras are able to give better than realistic lighting. What do you think of HDR video? Would you like to see movies filmed in this format or do you think it is gimmicky like a lot of the 3D televisions?

If you are interested, here is the behind the scenes footage as well:

Via Gizmodo

It is that time of year where most people in the world decide to make a  new years resolution, generally in an almost off the cuff way such as “I would like to be in better shape”, or “I would like to quit smoking”. The problem with this is that they are often fleeting internal half-truths that 99% people know they can’t (or don’t REALLY REALLY want to) follow through with. The problem with this is that most of us think of these resolutions in the way of “it would be nice if (I could stop smoking)” instead of the more realistic and motivating “If I don’t (stop smoking) this year I am going to die”.

For me new years is a very reflective time since my birthday falls on December 30th (New Years Eve, Eve) and it offers up an opportunity to really take a step back and see where my current trajectory is headed in life, and see if that parallels with the core values I have for myself and with what I want to accomplish before I am buried 6ft under. That may be a somewhat dark way to look at it but the reality is that we are only here for a blink of an eye and it is incredibly important to me that the day I am no longer here that people’s lives have been affected in a positive way due to things I have set in motion.

Year-End Checkup

So now that the year 2010 is officially behind us, what do I currently have going on in my life that were significant and/or have just started that are going to change my life in dramatic ways?

Graduated from WSU, moved to Seattle

The first major lifestyle change in my life this past year was graduating from Washington State University, this marks the first time I have been at a point where I really don’t know if I will ever be in a traditional school setting again as a student. WSU certainly delivered a rounded “college experience” and for anyone who has gone to school there, we will all bleed a little Crimson for the rest of our lives. It simply can not be helped.

Moving to Seattle was also somewhat abrupt but has been a great experience so far. I live in a nice building that is safe and reasonably located to my priorities. While the move to Seattle specifically was for the job at Apex Learning (more on that in a second), it has been an extremely beneficial experience in general.

Apex Learning – http://apexlearning.com

In October I was hired at Apex for my first “real job” on paper after getting my degree. Apex builds, sells and supports digital curriculum for 9-12th grade institutions. My position with this is officially titled an “Associate Account Manager” but has proven to be a beneficial asset in terms of getting some quality time with SalesForce.com (and even breaking it for 20 minutes hehe) and to work in a return sales capacity. While this isn’t extremely correlated to what I want to do career wise, they make a good product, provide a good service and both the company as well as myself benefit from the relationship by making a difference.

(40 hours/week)

MyBigGive – http://mybiggive.com

The age old “hobby” of mine has rolled over it’s 1 year mark, which shortly there after called for a major face-lift, back-end overhaul and doing as much revenue for charity within 3 weeks as it had done in the preceding 365 days. I feel like we finally have a grip on what customers are looking to get out of a platform like this and are busily building out the feature set (at a much faster rate than before) and are in talks with some pretty huge partners that I think you are going to enjoy hearing about if they come to fruition.

(20 hours/week)

Free SEO Report – http://freeSEOreport.com

This is a particularly exciting (and incredibly recent) opportunity that I have been included in on. Ironically I wrote a review of this service about a week ago as part of a contest to win an iPad but was hired the next day for business development instead (who says blogging can’t pay?!). I have been brought on for business development and to work closely with the properties owners Shoemoney Media Group, primarily with Jeremy Schoemaker and Tigh Buckles. I am very excited about the possibilities with this property and seeing what spending as many hours as I can with this talented team to shake things up in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  arena.

(20 hours/week)

The College Startup – http://thecollegestartup.com

Here is an area I admit I haven’t paid nearly enough attention to, and that as a lot to do with the major changes above. I have put some time and money into trying to make TCS easier to read and while my content has been sparse I hope at least a few of you found it useful. If any of you can think of things you would to see from this blog in the future (more regular posts for instance?) please feel free to let me know in the comments, and if you are interested in doing a guest post please just e-mail me at contact [at] mybiggive [dot] com

(5 hours/week)

Total 2011 weekly work hour projection: 85 hours/week

Personal Life

I haven’t blended my personal life into this blog very many times because it has been primarily for people interested in what kind of shenanigans I am getting into business wise and my thoughts in general about high-level business trends. However, with this many projects in the fire I wanted to address it really quickly.

As cliche as it is, I would really like to get into better physical condition. This doesn’t mean I am looking to run a marathon (even at my peak, I have never wanted to run more than I have to). However, I would like to return to about 3 years ago composition wise. I have been reading Tim Ferris’s new book during the holidays and I am quite intrigued by his methods. I will be reporting back on the results if they are anything worth noting. Having physical health is a direct correlation to mental health, and with the kind of schedule I plan on having for 2011 that is going to be more important now than ever.

What can you reflect on about 2010 as we land feet first into 2011?

This past Friday I was fortunate enough to go to Tulio in downtown Seattle for dinner and I can’t stop talking about how amazing it is to all of my friends. If you live in the Seattle area and are looking for a very nice meal, atmosphere and service this place is certainly a solid choice. I personally had their rib-eye with some red wine and their 9-pound porter.

If you are looking to take a nice date out, have a special occasion you want to celebrate or just enjoy top notch service and amazing food then you should definitely check out Tulio! One of the cooler things though (for the nerds like me) was booking our reservation with OpenTable. This is available both through a website and an App that lets you go back and edit your reservation if you need. It allows you to select how many people are in your party and pick time frames available which is great! Often times I have found phone reservations to be spotty, difficult to get through or a general lack of consistency in phone based customer service for reservations. Based on the service in Tulio I am sure it would have been great but being able to just use an app and get it booked early in the morning is great!

Information:

1100 5th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 624-5500

http://www.tulio.com

Given my new found location here in Seattle, WA I felt like I needed to dive in head first to try some “Pho” since so many people just couldn’t stop talking about it! What better time to try out a new food than in the presence of people who eat it regularly and know what they ordering? As you may or may not know, John Chow used to live in Vancouver, B.C. where he would regularly meet with readers for what he called “Dot com Pho”.

John recently moved to the Seattle/Bellevue area and so I figured I would hit him up for suggestions, and he ultimately just setup an American Dot com Pho near me so that it was super convenient. We went to this little place called “Pho Bac” which looked pretty haggard from the outside and had minimal everything on the inside.. all the potential of a disaster OR an amazing place. Luckily, this ended up being a very delicious experience!

I just had the round steak pho, which was teased by John as being “too safe” and “not adventurous” but I’ll take that for now until I have a better feeling for what I like. But based on everyone’s feedback I think I will be hard pressed to find Pho that is terrible. I recommend anyone in the Seattle area give this place a try even though it looks like a dive, but be sure to bring cash!

For those who are interested in a little video, feel free to check out the weekly post from John about Dot com Pho here.

Phobac : 1240 S Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98144

I have been missing in action for the last few weeks because my life has been a whirl wind and if any of you are following me on Twitter you are already aware that I have been busily moving from the Skagit Valley area down to Seattle and started a new position with Apex Learning. This new position, while certainly adding a lot more to my plate will not be taking away from my key focal points with projects online and I completely plan on delivering content and services for all of you guys!

Apex Learning

Some of you may be wondering, “Who the heck is Apex Learning?”. Apex Learning (in a nut shell) offers a suite of digital curriculum for grades 9-12. They are in a hyper-growth stage and have been on a hiring spree to manage the growth, which in my opinion can lead to the most interesting culture within a company.

Apex was originally founded by Paul Allen and had their first “real” funding come from Vulcan (a Paul Allen VC firm). The company has had a sorted past trying to find it’s footing within the industry and figuring out how the secondary education market works from a business perspective. While they are a digital/technology based company, make sure you don’t call them a technology company. In the words of management, “Apex is an education company that uses technology as a mode of transportation.” This distinction is interesting because it highlights the type of culture that the company employs to define who they are with their audience, educational institutions.

Why the move?

I was at a point in my life that called for a change, and a graduation of sorts in responsibility. Now that I am done with Washington State University and have been expanding my network, I was looking to throw myself into a larger base of people that share my interests and skill sets. Working with Apex Learning helps me accomplish my geographical goals, stabilize personal revenues (still not taking a paycheck from a number of my projects to reinvest as much as possible into growing them as an asset), network with like minded people, and to better understand corporate structure.

Sorry I have been gone so long, I hope to be back to a regular schedule asap!