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I don’t know if any of you reading this will remember this film..

It’s the one with Mel Gibson & Helen Hunt (if you’re old enough to remember the film, you’ll remember Mel was gorgeous in it!) 

Anyway, Mel’s character gets an electric shock and he can suddenly hear everything that the women in his life and all around him are thinking..

I mean he can literally HEAR EVERY THOUGHT in their heads!

I know right. crazy plot…

There are some funny story lines and for Mel’s character, some very revealing, surprising and at times painful revelations.

But it got me thinking…

As an online marketer, wouldn’t it be amazing if you could hear what your customers were thinking.

I mean, I’m sure it would get super annoying after a while, but it would save you months, years even trying to figure out your marketing message.

Imagine how easy it would be to create content that literally spoke to the hearts of your ideal clients!

Jim Edwards (a legendary marketer) says, if you can describe your clients’ problems better than they can, they’re sure to buy from you….

Why?

Because people buy based on emotion and then justify with logic.

Meaning that if you want to sell something, you need to get your potential buyer to FEEL something.

I’m working with a client at the moment who’s a high ticket affiliate marketer.

We’ve been doing some deep work on who here ICA (Ideal Client Avatar) is and what they’re really searching for help with online.

Your content is the engine that powers your online marketing strategy and the ability to create content that deeply connects with your ICA is a skill that takes years to refine, but when you can nail it, is very powerful.

My client and I have been brainstorming ideas for content and I was asking..

What do high ticket clients want? By high ticket I mean 3k and upwards.

In the end we found it was easier to come up with a list of things THEY DON’T WANT.

Here’s what we came up with:

• They don’t have a DIY mentality. They’ve already spent months, maybe even years trying to DIY results for themselves, and now they’re like “oh for christ sakes, just take my money and do the damn thing already”

Trying to sell them another DIY solution that’s gonna take them 6 months to implement is not gonna cut it.

• They don’t make buying decisions based on price and don’t have a problem paying, i.e. they have the funds and can afford to pay and are comfortable paying for “high ticket”. In fact if your proposal is too cheap, they may think it’s sub standard. (the price you are comfortable charging is connected to your own individual money blueprint, not theirs)

• They want to feel special. They want the power of exclusivity. They want your best service. Your best attention. Your best offer. Basically, they don’t want what everyone else is getting. They just want the best service and they can afford it. That’s why they drive a Mercades and not a Ford right!

• They’re willing to pay “high ticket ” because in their mind, it buys them certainty. They can deal with the problem once and for all.

What’s the most you’ve ever paid for coaching or another high ticket offer?

Once you’ve paid “high ticket” yourself, you’ll find it easier to charge the same yourself.

If you need help selling your “high ticket coaching” offer, then I’d love you to come and join our community on Facebook. The 10k Month Club for Heart Centred Coaches & Consultants.

I go live every week and share tips and tricks to help you to create your freedom business.

Until next time.

Sharon Marie ?

Hi I’m Sharon Marie and in 2016 I quit my 9-5, corporate career in search of a better way of living.

At the time I had worked in the recruitment industry for over 20 years and had worked my way up the corporate ladder. I’d even had my own IT recruitment business and was an established recruitment sales coach.

Despite having achieved success in “corporate land” as I now refer to it, I just felt that something was missing in my life. I wasn’t in control of my days and I was working towards someone else’s dream, not my own. I needed to reclaim my days and get my life back.

I’ve always been a driven person from a very young age. I grew up, the youngest of 7 kids in a catholic, Indian immigrant family. My parents had come to England in search of a better life. I’m not sure they ever really found it as I just remember them always working really long hours, often leaving us kids to fend for ourselves. Money was always tight and I learnt quite quickly that if I wanted more from life, I’d need to earn it myself.

So I did the only thing I knew how to do back then. I did what my parents had taught me was the right way. I went and got my first job. I worked in various retail and sales jobs until I found my career in recruitment in my 20’s.

Recruitment is a tough industry, where you’re expected to “sell your soul” to the business in order to “make it”. Yes it’s lucrative and you can earn big money, but you earn every penny of it and pay for it with your time. That was fine as a single young woman, but later as a single mother, I just wasn’t prepared to continue to exchange my valuable time for money any more. I knew there had to be a better (and more family friendly) way.

I tried Amazon FBA (which I actually still do), but the problem with Amazon FBA is that you never own your customers and Amazon can shut you down in an instant. Also you only need one bad review and your sales plummet. The market I’m in is just so saturated with new “copy cat” private label products. It was just too much work for too little return. Also I found that I just wasn’t passionate it.

Next I tried lead generation for small service based businesses. I loved this model and I actually did really well with this business model as with my sales background I was able to pick up new clients pretty easily. I would recommend this model if you like a service based business where you need to deliver projects to clients. I still have some clients that I work with and I enjoy the work as it keeps my digital skills and knowledge fresh, Facebook Ads, Sales Funnels etc.

The problem with this business though was that pretty soon, I had more clients to manage and deliver to and my time just wasn’t my own yet again. I was still exchanging time for money.

There are many different ways to make money from the comfort of your own home. Now more than ever I believe that people will be looking for new ways to live and work as I was in 2016.

Since discovering my love for Digital Marketing, I’ve tried many different models, but the one I have come back to is Coaching.

In my recruitment career I eventually ended up coaching and training new consultants and also people looking for help with starting up their own recruitment businesses.

These days I get to combine my love of Digital Marketing with my Coaching and work with business owners who want help creating a freedom business.

If you need help in your own business then you can join our Facebook community of business owners HERE

I go live every week in the group The 10k Month Club ~ For Heart Centred Coaches & Consultants, and share tips and tricks for making money online and creating your freedom business.

“Reading is essential for those who seek to rise above the ordinary.” ~Jim Rohn

I am an avid reader. I love books.

Looking back on my childhood though, it’s hard to understand where my love of books and of reading came from.

I was the youngest of 7 kids in a pretty hectic Indian immigrant family. My grandparents also lived with us, so with 11 of us in the house, let’s just say it was a busy household. I imagine like many of us, my parents probably didn’t have time to read and they didn’t really encourage us to read. In fact there were no books in our home. Not a single one (unless you count my mum’s old recipe books).

“So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.” – Roald Dahl

The fact that there were no books, now seems really odd to me, but I guess, like a lot of people, my parents were just too busy working.

I’d say I first really discovered books at infant school. I can remember that once a week, our whole class would visit the local library. We got to take out books on our book tickets. I loved those visits to the library with school. They were the highlight of my school week.

Writing that makes me think about the scene in Matilda when she first realises that she’s actually allowed to take books out of the library and even to take them home. Wow the wonder and excitement of it all.

I still love buying books and reading book reviews and I’m constantly ordering books from Amazon. I have many books that I’ve bought over the years that I’ve never read, but I just love having them. Amazon prime has been a godsend!

As a parent myself now, I always felt that it was really important to read with my kids. We still have a lot of the books that we used to read together at bedtime. There is so much evidence available now about how good reading is and why it’s important for kids and adults to read, but that’s not what this post is about.

This post is about how I still manage to consume the wonderful knowledge that is contained in books, without actually sitting down and reading.

I actually posted a tweet recently asking if listening to the classics on Audible was cheating? I do feel like it’s cheating a bit, but it’s better than not reading or rather consuming content, at all.

Elon Musk (when asked how he learned to build rockets):

“I read books”

Why It’s Important To Keep Learning As We Get Older And Why Reading (Or Listening) Is Such An Important Part Of That.

Regardless of how many degrees and qualifications you have, you can always learn more.

“understanding and mastery is a fluid, continual process.” Moreover, even if you are a master at your craft, there are countless other things from which you can learn and glean insight. And the best way to do that is through reading” ~ Ryan Holiday (American author ~ the obstacle is the way)

Despite the fact that I own lots of books and I love curling up on the sofa with a good read, these days, with so many projects on the go, I simply don’t have enough hours in the day to sit down and enjoy a good book.

However I have discovered an amazing life hack, which is so simple, but it has literally changed my life (ok, maybe that’s a bit dramatic!, but it’s been a game changer and made a massive difference)

So what is this amazing, life changing, game changer I hear you ask.

Audible!

That’s it, quite simply listening instead of reading.

The thing is, I’m in the car a lot and I walk a lot. I used to listen to music on the radio, but now I listen to books instead. This way I get all the benefits and knowledge from a great book, whilst I’m on the move.
If I’m on foot I can simply use my headphones to listen and when I’m in the car, I use a phone speaker. I use this one Avantree Bluetooth Handsfree Care Kit, but there are a ton on Amazon to choose from.

“If you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.” – J.K. Rowling

What Is Audible?

Amazon Audible is a monthly subscription service that provides users with access to a massive database of audiobooks. You access and play these audiobooks through the Audible app, which can be downloaded for iPhone and android.

“‘Classic’ – a book which people praise and don’t read.” – Mark Twain

How Does Audible Work?

Members pay a monthly subscription and get to listen to one new book each month. If you don’t use the book credit it is simply carried over to the next month, so you don’t lose it.

Every month you get a ton of new titles and Audible will even send you recommended listens based on your recent downloads, so it’s also an amazing way to discover new authors and get new ideas.

Over time, members are able to accumulate large libraries of audiobooks and unlike similar audiobook subscriptions, all audiobooks purchased through the Audible app are yours to keep forever.

These days I am a busy working parent. There is always so much to get done. I am very active in the make money online community, and run my on digital marketing agency, so life is incredibly busy.

If like mine, your life is busy, then whilst the idea of reading is really appealing, you may simply not have the time and if you’re not reading , you’re missing out on so much good information and knowledge.

We all know that reading is good for us and listening on Audible is such a great way to listen to your favourite books and to discover new one’s.

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” – Stephen King

These days I am a busy working parent. There is always so much to get done. I am very active in the make money online community, and run my on digital marketing agency, so life is incredibly busy.

Mark Zuckerberg:

“Books allow you to fully explore a topic and immerse yourself in a deeper way than most media today.”

In the interest of transparency, I want to let you know that I occasionally include affiliate links in my posts. I will only include links to products that I have found interesting and useful in my journey and which I believe will be of interest to you on your journey towards a “passive income” lifestyle. If you purchase an item using my affiliate link, I will receive a commission.

I’ve always loved being my own boss, ever since I started my first bricks and mortar recruitment business back in 2003. A friend had recently set up his recruitment business and persuaded me that it would be a great idea for me as well. It was scary at first, but looking back, was one of the best decisions I ever made.

That’s not to say that I haven’t been “employed” by other people since then, I’ve had to be through necessity at times, but the desire to be my own boss, working for myself, on my own terms, when and where I want, has never left me.

Running a bricks and mortar recruitment business is very different to the way I work today and it was a fall while I was bouldering (one of my great loves!) that changed my direction and got me back on the right path.

It was the week before Christmas, actually it was the 21st December 2016 and I was bouldering. For anyone who’s never been bouldering, it’s basically climbing without ropes. Anyway I fell from the top, landed awkwardly and ended up in A&E with a ruptured achilles tendon.

Immediately after the accident I was in plaster up to my knee and on cruches for the first 6 weeks and out of action for 6 months. At the time, I was employed full time and forced to work at home every afternoon with my leg raised in the air to avoid a blood clot (which explained a lot as I’d seen people in that position on tv or films before, but never understood why ~ every day’s a school day!)

Now up until this point I had been doing what many full time working mums do, and rushing at both ends of the day to get the kids to breakfast club and then collect them on time (I was often late!) from after school club at the end of the day.

Having the accident literally forced me to slow down as I couldn’t drive and I certainly couldn’t rush, anywhere (you try being in plaster up to your knee and not being able to put any weight on that leg!)

I was very fortunate as so many parents at school helped me with picking up and dropping off the kids. As a single parent with few family members close by, I don’t know how I’d have managed otherwise, people really rallied round to help me, which I’m eternally grateful for.

Whilst I was working at home I kept thinking, this is really nice. I loved not having to be in the office and I loved being at home to greet my kids when they got dropped back after school. It was then that I realised just how miserable my life had been prior to the accident. I knew I needed to make some changes.

I began to search for a way out. Having worked for myself in the past I’d always wanted to do so again, but things were very different this time, I was now a single parent and the main provider, I had a mortgage and bills to pay, not to mention, 3 people to feed.

I started googling “work from home”, “flexible working”, “make money online”. I kept seeing the phrase “passive income”. It’s crazy to think now, that at the time I’d never even heard that term. How much my life has changed.

My online journey started with Amazon FBA. I then set up a digital marketing agency to generate leads for businesses using FacebookAds and Sales Funnels. I’ve since learnt all about chatbots and messenger marketing. It’s been a steep learning curve, and at times I’ve doubted myself.

So fast forward 3 years, to today. I now work from home most days. I still do some contract work as a sales coach and a talent acquisition consultant, because I will always love the recruitment industry and want to stay connected with it.

The rest of my time is spent working on digital marketing project for clients and most recently doing affiliate marketing.

I now have the lifestyle I want and I can enjoy being here every day for my kids, which is my why.

If you’re still considering starting an online business, my advise would be to pay for some training, if you can afford it. If not then do your research online. There’s lots of free information available.

Just remember that starting anything new will take time and will require some effort up front, but if you stick with it, you will get there.

It is possible to create change in your life and if I can do it, then anyone can.

Good luck!

Sharon Marie xx

Ok, so I get it. You’ve tried affiliate marketing and you didn’t have any success with it. Or is it just that you gave up too soon?

Affiliate marketing as a business model gets a bad reputation. If you say to someone that you do affiliate marketing, they’ll either look at you blankly or say something like “oh so you just sell to your friends and family”.

The fact is that affiliate marketing is a great way to start and grow an online business, but so few people that get into affiliate marketing actually make any money. Why is that?

The number of people who have said to me since I started, “Oh I tried affiliate marketing, but it didn’t work”. They say it in a way that implies “yeah don’t waste your time”

When I hear that about about anything, “it didn’t work”, I usually think, you mean it didn’t work for you, probably because you went about it the wrong way or you didn’t have the patience to stick with it.

Before I got into the world of digital marketing I worked in the recruitment industry for many, many years, eventually becoming a sales coach.

Recruitment consultants can earn good money and for many years (when I was exchanging my time for money) I did as well. I had a great recruitment career that paid for my house and funded lots of snowboarding trips!

Lots of people were attracted into the job by the lure of the earning potential, but in my experience, very few people actually made the big money. There was a high churn rate and over the years I saw a lot of people come and go.

There was a common theme amongst the people who were successful and still are; they stayed in the job for more than a few years and they worked at it.

That’s it. No special set of skills, no particularly complicated process, they just stayed and worked.

We’ve all heard the saying “practice makes perfect”, but people seem to forget that. That in order to get good at something you actually need to practice. It’s no different with affiliate marketing or recruitment or anything else for that matter.

You hear it all the time “Oh I’ve tried that, but it didn’t work”.

Is it a generational thing, can we blame it on society? Is it the millennials, the Y generation? Do people expect things to come too easily these days. Yes I think they probably do.

Shows like the XFactor always made me laugh when they’d show the backstory of some 16 year old kid talking about how hard they’d worked and how this was their big chance and it means so much to them because they’ve given it everything. Sorry but, but get over yourself and keep trying. I’m sorry, I just don’t buy it!

There’s a great book, by Matthew Syed called “bounce, the myth of talent and the power of practice”

In book he talks about how he and his brother were lucky enough to have a table tennis table in their garage when he was 8 years old and his brother was a few years older. Because of this they got really good as they literally played for hours every day after school.

Matthew went on to become British number one at table tennis in 1995 and he attributes his success, not to talent, but to consistent practice.

In the book he also gives numerous similar examples of people who have become great at one thing and become hugely successful, purely through their ability to focus, practice, learn and essentially “stick with it”

I do think that that is one of the main reasons that most people don’t succeed whether it’s with affiliate marketing or anything else for that matter. They just don’t stick with it. They give up when it gets a bit difficult, a bit challenging, a bit like hard work.

They tell themselves it’s the “thing” they’re doing that doesn’t work, the business model itself, when actually it’s them.

They weren’t willing to learn from their mistakes.

They weren’t willing to make changes to improve what they were doing, make it better.

They weren’t willing to look inside themselves to see what they were doing wrong.

They weren’t willing to find a better way, find a more efficient way, so that they could become successful.

So coming back to affiliate marketing, there is no reason why anyone needs to fail. You just need to stick with it, keep learning, keep improving, keep trying and eventually you will succeed.

There is so much free training out there, so much good advice and information to help you to get started and you can always pay for training. I myself have spent thousands of dollars over the last 5 years on training and every penny has been money well spent.

Put the blinders on

Keep laser focused

Keep away from the “shiny objects”

STICK WITH IT!

Now go and make some money.

In the interest of transparency, I want to let you know that I occasionally include affiliate links in my posts. I will only include links to products that I have found interesting and useful in my journey and which I believe will be of interest to you on your journey towards a “passive income” lifestyle. If you purchase an item using my affiliate link, I will receive a commission.

So I want to give some credit for this headline , but for the life of me I can’t think where I read it. I listen to so many books on audible and a lot are about being the best version of yourself, being successful that kind of thing.

I don’t want to refer to them as “self help” books, I hate that expression for some reason, don’t know why. It makes it sound all “wishy washy” and pathetic.

I guess I enjoy reading (or rather listening these days) to books about every day “normal” whatever that is, people, who have basically got their shit together, worked hard (and consistently) at something and made something of themselves. Changed their trajectory in life, found a new path, a better path.

As I’m writing this I want to say, Dan Meredith, “how to be F**king Awesome“. Maybe that’s where I saw it and I think he said he got it from someone else (there’s nothing new on the planet!)

Anyway the type of books I enjoy the most are written by people who are like me. They get to a point in life where they think “F*** this shit”, I want more from life” and then they start their journey towards that and on the way they learn stuff, about themselves and all sorts of stuff and then they write a book and tell us all about it and share what they’ve learnt along the way, and that helps other people who are a bit behind them (on their journey to discover a better life, not literally standing behind them)

Anyway the point is (and I realise that this is all sounding a bit like Frodo’s epic journey in Lord of The Rings), the point is that, we love to read about people who have done what we want to do because that gives us the courage and belief that we can do it and it keeps us going ourselves.

The reason that native ads work so well is because the images are of “real” people, not some airbrushed gorgeous, “perfect” person. Because in reality we are all flawed in some way. We all have weird quirks and we all have things about ourselves that we don’t particularly like, but that’s what makes us unique. It’s also what makes us interesting to other people.

When I read about someone, I want to relate to them on some level. I want to think “yeah I get that and that’s what I’m going through”. If that person can get through that and still be ok, then I can as well.

So “your mess is your message” . You are who you are because of, and in spite of, the things that have been messy in your life. You are the person you are today, because you’ve had to deal with some shit and you’re now still here to tell the tale and we all want to hear it because we can all relate.

So go tell your story, tell it often. Tell it to anyone who’ll listen. Spread the word , spread your message.

And if you’d like more content like this or help with creating your freedom business, then I’d love you to come and join our community on Facebook Make Daily Profits Online ~ Create Your Freedom Business

Sharon Marie x

In the interest of transparency, I want to let you know that I occasionally include affiliate links in my posts. I will only include links to products that I have found interesting and useful in my journey and which I believe will be of interest to you on your journey towards a “passive income” lifestyle. If you purchase an item using my affiliate link, I will receive a commission.