I absolutely love sports, and especially baseball. I owe this to my grandmother who was a huge Chicago Cubs fan. Every summer when we would come visit her, she would take all of us to a Cubs game.

My son is almost 12 years old, and he is in his 2nd year of what is known in Little League circles as the “Majors” – which is 11 and 12 year old boys. This is a huge step up from the 9 and 10 year olds. The pitching is much faster, the balls are thrown faster, the hitting is harder – everything is definitely more like “real” baseball.

We just started practice a week ago, and yesterday we had a cold windy practice at 11:00 am. The fathers help out hitting grounders, throwing pitches, and doing anything else that is needed. Yesterday, one of the fathers, John, started pitching, to give each player a good number of practice hits.

He pitched for a while, then asked Chad to help out. So Chad pitched for a while and both John and Chad were getting real frustrated because their pitching wasn’t very good. You need to try to get the ball over the plate. So Chad said – “come on Stephen, it’s your turn!”

I don’t usually get asked to pitch. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I’m 20 years older than the other fathers. Anyway, I went out to the mound, and you wouldn’t believe the negative stuff that was going through my head. “What part of me is going to hurt for the next week? What if I throw my _____ out? What if I make a fool of myself?

So I started to throw a few balls, and I was feeling great! Then I realized what my mind and subconscious was doing to cause my limiting beliefs to try and de-rail me. It is really awesome what happened next.

I actually took the stance of a major league pitcher. I started going through the same motions, pull my arm back, lift my left leg and point that leg and arm right at the strike zone as I “hurled” the ball. HA! I ended up having a great time and I quit all my worrying. I’m actually in real good shape for being 61 years old.

I started thinking about how our limiting beliefs stop us from being who we want to be and what we need to do in our businesses. These usually stem from our past failures. I encourage you to be aware when your thoughts go into “I can’t” mode. Recognizing this is a huge part of the battle to overcome our limiting beliefs.

The next important step is to take immediate action – marching right against the fear that is holding you back. Afraid to make that call? Pick up the phone right now. Don’t think you can make that video? Grab your Flip video camera and hit the red record button.

What is incredible – the more you kick fear or negative believing right in the face – the easier it becomes. And you start feeling so much more confident. This confidence spills over into every area of your life.

Let me know what ghosts of your past you are battling. Let me know what you are doing about it. Share your victories. Share your defeats. We all can learn from each other.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related articles about Major League Baseball:

• A’s right-hander Sheets hit hard by minor leaguers (cbssports.com)
• MLB — Buster Olney: Fausto Carmona may have re-discovered his groove, which is Cleveland’s best chance (insider.espn.go.com)
• Padilla named Opening Day starter (ballhype.com)
• Breaking Down the Tampa Bay Rays’ 2010 Pitching Staff (bleacherreport.com)
• Jerry Crasnick: St. Louis Cardinals’ Ryan Franklin late-blossoming closer (sports.espn.go.com)

Cover via Amazon

(Click Here, Gary Halbert, To view the 1st of this series of 3 articles.)

I recently watched Mike Dillard’s (Magnetic Sponsoring) 18 minute video, and one of the greatest pieces of advice he gave was to pick ONE method of marketing and leave all the rest behind, for now. Work on this one marketing skill until you become an expert at it.

But the other thing he said was, along with this one skill, you need to learn copy writing. With a good knowledge and skill of copywriting, you can pretty much make money anywhere you go. If it isn’t writing for your own sale campaigns, you can hire your skill out, and command a great price.

In this part of my copywriting secrets teaching, I want to show you who I have learned from and give you some resources so you can quickly find books and courses that will be a big help to you. Copywriting can be learned. It doesn’t happen overnight, but as you stay consistent in your study AND writing, you will get better.

The first person I have a lot of respect for as a copywriter is Dan Kennedy. He has influenced a lot of people with his teachings.  He has two best selling books that are definitely worth getting – The Ultimate Sales Letter  & The Ultimate Marketing Plan. Dan Kennedy also has “Dan Kennedy’s Copywriting Seminar In-A-Box” which is 28 CD’s and a whole bunch of printed examples of what to do and what not to do. I got my copy of this on Ebay. You might find it there too.

John Carlton is the next copywriter I have learned a lot from. The course I have from him is called “Kick-Ass Copywriting Secrets of a Marketing Rebel.” This is 4 CD’s and about 200 pages of pure gold. He has a great sense of humor, often right in your face. He tells it like it is. I learned from him how the big Ad Agencies don’t know a hill of beans about response marketing. They milk the big corporations of billions of dollars in building their “brand”.

Joe Sugarman is another great copywriter. I have a book of his, “The Adweek Copywriting Handbook” which is 338 pages of incredible learning. He has about 40 chapters, each one showing a different style of targeting your audience and how to do it. The sub-title to this book is “The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Markting Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters.”

Copywriting is, in a lot of ways, all about the psychological influence that your writing will have on people – to take action. That’s why copywriting is so powerful. A book that anyone in copywriting for long hears about is Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D.’s book “Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion.” He shows that there are six very powerful influences that will cause people to take action, either positively or negatively. These six influences are:

1) Reciprocation  2) Commitment & Consistency  3) Social Proof  4) Liking  5) Authority  and  6) Scarcity. He spends a whole chapter on each one of these psychological influences. Very interesting!

Gary Halbert is who I talked about in my last copywriting article. I don’t have any of his courses or books, but I have a growing swipe file from his massive amount of articles and videos online. One thing you’ll notice, each copywriter I have mentioned has a very outgoing, almost “in your face” personality. Not all of them, but definitely John Carlton and Gary Halbert. And Dan Kennedy can get that way once in a while! I think this stems from the fact that to be a good copywriter you have to have a very wide range of life experiences.  You could never be a good copywriter if you never leave home and are afraid of your own shadow.

The last copywriter I will talk about in this article is Brian Keith Voiles. He has an awesome 6 – CD course (and 1 DVD)  with a large printed 3-ring binder, called “Advertising Magic! The Complete Guide To Creating Hot Ads & Sales Letters That Work!” I found this on Ebay also.  What’s neat is every copywriter is so different. Being experts at selling, they are experts at selling their own products. I don’t regret at all the fact that I have spent a bit of money on copywiting books and programs.

There are others that I haven’t mentioned, that are great copywriters too. If you can get any of these guys on video, that would be a real treat.

Be on the look-out for my 3rd article on copywriting – some good practical tips and templates that you can use to quickly put together some great “pulling” articles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related articles you may be interested in:

• Johnny’s Copyblogger Wrap-Up: Week of March 22, 2010 (copyblogger.com)
• The Internet Secrets Of Bond Halbert (slideshare.net)
• Increasing Revenue By Becoming A Great Copywriter (pro2sell.com)
• Copywriting Expert Bob Bly to Expose Secrets to In-Demand Work At Home Career (prweb.com)

Copywriting is an art, and not so much a science. Yes there are people, mostly psychologists, who have taken copywriting to a different level that is more scientific. This, in itself is fascinating. If you want to learn from one of the all time experts in this area, Glenn Livingston is a master at pyschological selling and copywriting techniques. I spent 6 months learning his methods and coming from a true pyschologist, it was hot!

If you heard Mike Dillard’s webinar a few nights ago, he stated a few times about the importance of becoming a good copywriter. Many people don’t know where to start, or even what copywriting means. So I decided to do a few teachings on some of the most important points, and point you in the direction of how to learn a lot more.

Copywriting is the art of grabbing someone’s attention, and then holding their attention long enough to cause an emotional shift towards your product or service, and then making them an offer that they cannot refuse. If you have been into internet marketing for even a month or two, you have seen a number of these “sales letters” – some of them being 25 pages long. I have a collection of sales letters, and it is very interesting to spend time analyzing them – especially if you got “sucked in” and you pulled out your credit card and you bought!

In the video, I show you a simple exercise you can do to quickly increase your copywriting skills. Will you do the exercise? Probably not. Why? Only about 3 to 5% of people ever get focused enough to follow through on one thing long enough to make them a profit. I love the book, The Slight Edge. Is doing this exercise easy to do? Yes it is. Is it easy not to do it? Yes it is.

This exercise is swiping a Gary Halbert Letter, and printing it out, and then HAND WRITING a copy of the letter on lined paper. It takes a while, and if you haven’t written long hand in a while, it hurts. But you’ll quickly build up your hand muscles. And your copywriting skills will start increasing. Sounds crazy? Well a great copywriter told me about this a few years ago. It gets your mind and eyes and hand all in action. Just the process of handwriting will drill those Gary Halbert lines into your brain. You will start to pick up on little things that make a big difference.

The next tip is to just start writing – a lot. Your blog is a great place to start. Try to do one post each day. I know this is a lot of work. Commit to at least 4 posts per week. You will start becoming a better copywriter in no time.

Stay tuned. I will do at least 2 more blog posts about copywriting.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Related articles about Copywriting:

• The Art of Zen Copywriting for Bloggers (copyblogger.com)
• Why You Should Always Write Your Headline Last (copyblogger.com)
• To Increase Conversions Every – Time Use This Copywriting Tip (suescaletta.com)
• Increasing Revenue By Becoming A Great Copywriter (pro2sell.com)

Network marketing is an interesting business to keep an eye on. You see different trends, and different “approaches ” in prospecting. But after a while there is not much new stuff being introduced. It is still a people business, and it will always be a people business.

One of the first things a new recruit starts asking questions about is “how do I approach my family? How do I approach my friends? How do I approach my neighbors? They want to know exactly what to say, and if you have some good scripts that they can learn, they get really excited.

This is all dandy and good, except the rejection keeps coming, and the new recruit starts wondering if he is cut out for this. He also thinks it may be just the company or the product that people don’t like. She almost never stops and thinks the problem might be between her own two ears.

So instead of concentrating on your approach to your neighbors, family and friends, what about your approach to your business? Say what? Yes, what is your approach to your own business? I’ll tell you how most network marketers approach their business – as a “some-timer” or a “part-timer” or a “just checking it out-timer” or an “if I make $1000 in the first week – timer -I’ll stick around.” Your approach to your business means everything. It means whether or not you will succeed in network marketing.

Here’s what’s happening. As you go out to prospect, and you open your mouth and stutter and tell them you’re new and just got in, they smile and are thinking – “I sure as heck don’t want to do that myself!”. Even if your “approach” is professional and smooth, your prospect can read between the lines – “he’s nothing but a “some-timer” – why should I bother following him?” You may be fooling yourself, but if you aren’t totally committed to your business, your prospects will pick up on this every single time.

I wrote another blog post about this – the 3 Stages of Belief.  You will be as successful in network marketing as you are passionate about your business, and work at it full-time – at least in your thinking. For many people, this realization happens all at once, and suddenly you no longer have any fear of picking up that 30 lb phone. I don’t know what will trigger this for you. But it can happen in an instance. I believe it happens because you are preparing yourself for your future, and you finally see yourself exactly like you are, and you say – “I am better than that! I’m not going to allow my limiting beliefs to hold me back anymore! Get out of my way! Here I come!”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Napoleon Hill With His Own Book

This is a collection of a few of the greatest prosperity minds of the last century. As A Man Thinketh, by James Allen is a real classic. So is Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.

These books can all be downloaded to your own computer. They are my gift to you. My desire it that you benefit and prosper immensely from these books, like I have. Please tell others about this resource and what you are learning. I want as many people as possible to make a lot of money this year.

If you want to absolutely change your life, you MUST work on yourself MORE than you work on your business. A very simple strategy is to read 10 pages / day, every day. Is this EASY to do? Yes it is. Is this EASY NOT to do? You bet. But if you make the choice to read these books, 10 pages every day, you will get through all of them easily in less than a year. The education you get by doing this small “easy” exercise – will be priceless!

Here is a classic video of Napoleon Hill as he explains how he was commissioned to write his best selling book ‘Think & Grow Rich.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An Iron Will	As A Man Thinketh	Think & Grow Rich	Acres of Diamonds
Compensation Emerson	The Game of Life	The Science of Getting Rich	The Richest Man In Babylon
Your Invisible Power	The Master Key System	The Creative Process in the Individual	Self Help – Samuel Smiles