About two years ago I attended a private Internet Marketing event in Los Angeles, CA in which Eben Pagan was the keynote speaker. In case you don't know who Eben is, he's one of, if not THE top Information Marketers in the world. His enterprise currently does in excess of $20 Million in revenue per year. This guy is sharp as a tack...

At that event, he laid out the five highest growth areas of business that must be in place for your business to really take off. As you go through each of the five, take a minute to analyze where YOU are at with each one. How are you doing in this area? Give yourself a grade on each - A, B, C, D or F. Be honest. You can't fix what you don't know needs fixin'...  ;)

And if you're feeling brave, post your answers and comments right at the bottom of this blog post. Many paid thousands of dollars for this info. Read it closely. The quotes are direct from Eben.

Here we go...

#1 - You: "You are your highest leverage." You call the shots and you get to decide how big or how small you want to be. You control your state of mind. The size of your box is only limited by you. You must constantly be developing yourself and your skills. "To become a person who attracts, keeps, and develops great people, you must first develop yourself in many ways."

Right to the point and right on...

#2 - Your Market: "Narrow your focus in the face of increasing opportunity." I thought this was interesting: "Develop the skill of overlooking opportunity." Hmmm…Contrary to popular belief. But, popular belief has never really won out when you think about it. Leaders don't follow the herd. They create the herd...

Simply put... FOCUS. Stop entertaining every idea that comes your way and jumping from the next opportunity to the next. Don't be a 'jack of all trades' and 'a master of none.' The masters win out. Stop trying to be all things to all people. It’s a rookie mindset. Commit and focus. And never lose focus... or you lose. Period.

Put the blinders on. Pick a direction and run with it like there is no tomorrow. THIS is where the big success starts to show up. Do you think Eben was entertaining other business opportunities while he was building his multi-million dollar empire early on? Of course not! He knew where he was going and he successfully developed the skill of "overlooking opportunity" once he created his opportunity.

That couldn't have come at a more appropriate time than today as we are ALL over exposed and inundated with new information and new ideas...

#3 - Your Marketing: You must create "public consciousness" in your marketing efforts. Look for customers who are looking for you. "It's better to be first than it is to be better."

Love that comment.

Make sure there is pain and urgency in your message or an "irrational passion." This causes an emotional drive from your prospect or customer. People act on emotion and justify with logic. Its human nature. We are all wired this way.

Another interesting concept here.... When it comes to creating names for you or your business, "create names that are impossible to forget, not easy to remember." You might want to read that again. Eben used the pen name David Deangelo, "Double Your Dating" for years. Say that a few times. It bounces around in your head, right? Tough to forget.

And... start giving away more for FREE. Don’t keep your best ideas a secret. Share them. Give them away. Lose the scarcity mentality. Give to get. "Give away the what to do. Sell the how to do it."

Genius. Yet so simple... 

#4 - Your People: When you start bringing people into your business to assist you with your growth (and this better be in your plans or you are NOT planning for success) make sure they are "Drivers."

I love this term... Drivers. Drivers are people who focus on results not work. Big difference. A Driver has a sense of personal responsibility. In my world I call this "taking ownership" or what Eben says: "Taking ownership of the result." Even better. A Driver is persistent and determined. A Driver does NOT need to be told what to do.

This is why Eben only hires Virtual Assistants in his multi-million dollar enterprise. Because he can give them ownership. He can pick out the stars and he has no obligation to them. He does not pay them a salary. He does not pay their benefits. They are independent contractors. No entitlement mentality. VA's are not employees and they tend NOT to view their projects in terms of work but in terms of results (at least the good ones will).

VA's are becoming the secret of the wealthy in the Internet Marketing and Information Marketing world these days, and the growth in this space has been staggering as of late. Personally, I have a half dozen VA's currently working with me in my business. I couldn't function at a high level without them.

Eben now has 80 full time VA's around the world... Wow.

#5 - Your Systems: Three words here: Automate, Automate, and Automate. "Automate the repetitive tasks and outsource the more complex projects." Always remember.. systems never fail, people fail.

BUT, and this is a big BUT... never outsource your core marketing projects. This is your baby and no one knows your business like YOU do. Those of you who know me personally, or are coached and mentored by me directly, know that I feel pretty strongly about that last point and you should too...

Writing your own sales copy and your own ads and your own offers is your most valuable skill and will allow you to be YOU in your advertising efforts. I'm shocked time and time again by the people who want to outsource their marketing. What?! That's like a heart surgeon outsourcing heart surgery! Your marketing is your single highest revenue activity. Bar none. You are IN the marketing business.

So there you have it from one of the top Info Marketers of our time. Bold statement, I know. I'm not afraid to make it though after hearing and seeing Eben speak for two hours and learning about the outrageous revenue he's pulling in.

Notice how often the word "Your" was used in his overview. See a theme developing here?

Everything is in YOUR control my friend. At the end of the day... YOU are your most important asset.

Get a handle on The BIG 5...


Best,

Andrew J. Cass