Many of us think the ability to multitask is an exceptional quality.

It is, but the problem is, not everybody can do it well. And not everyone can dodge distractions.

Maximizing productivity by minimizing distractions is perhaps one of the biggest challenges of any multi-tasker. We oftentimes welcome distractions by considering them as so-called “short breaks”, unaware that this contributes to decreased productivity.

As busy internet marketers or entrepreneurs, many things demand our time, but we know we can’t always squeeze everything into one day.

Maximizing productivity means working efficiently so let us look at some of the ways that we can focus more, and do more:

1. The To-do Clutter: Don’t put off what can be done today!
   Got a lot of post-its and papers tacked on the board in front of you? More often than not, our list of to-do’s increased because we failed to focus and get things done. Focus on a few important tasks for the day. Any distraction that is not related to any of those tasks should be set aside or ignored.
2. Music: It doesn’t have to be super loud to be inspiring
   When we listen to songs we are very familiar with, our mind constantly shifts and before we know it, we’re just singing or daydreaming! If you must work with music in the background, maximizing productivity would mean turning it off when you’re finishing an important task, or turning the volume lower for the not so important ones.
3. Fatigue and Hunger: Get enough sleep and eat on time
   Obviously, maximizing productivity cannot be expected from a hungry, tired or stressed person. The solution? Get plenty of sleep, and don’t skip meals! It will do you good, and help you avoid stomach ulcers and dark under eye circles. Plus, you get to work faster because your mind is sharper.
4. Social media: Separate work from personal interaction
   We love the social networks, but it has been found that its accessibility in workplaces is the leading cause of decreased productivity! If you’re handling a Facebook or Twitter account for the company, that’s fine. But if you keep checking your home feed and replying instantly, a huge chunk of valuable work time is wasted. To solve this, check your personal accounts at home, or after work.

Minimizing or eliminating distractions is indeed the key to maximizing productivity. Focus on the few important tasks at hand, and you’ll realize that less is truly more!

Do you often find yourself distracted while working? What are your common distractions and how do you deal with them? Leave a comment below or share this post with friends if you liked it. Thank you!

To Your Success,

Elmar Sandyck

We hunger for success.

More often than not, when we envision it, we immediately think wealth, respect, popularity.

While these things are indeed associated with success, many of us need to be reminded that personal growth is the key to success, and not the other way around.

Yes, our success can bring growth too, but before we can achieve it, we need to cultivate the right habits, the right mindset and attitude, and arm ourselves with the necessarily skills and knowledge.

To make things much simpler, I suggest we focus on only 2 things: mindset and knowledge.

Mindset
Know this: you can succeed. And repeat this to yourself: “I know I can succeed.”

Perhaps the most important realization that an individual can make in their quest for success is that personal growth is key to success. There is no single formula for this since we all have different goals and priorities and our strengths and weaknesses vary. So understand that personal success starts with believing in oneself and focusing on the right things.

With focus comes the importance of affirmations. Know your strengths and weaknesses and affirm them, write down your areas of improvement, and develop a more confident and positive attitude. Once you have this mindset, it will be easier to travel the path to success.

Knowledge

Knowledge is power.
Recognizing that personal growth is the key to success requires the sharpening of one’s skills, painstaking research, constant practice and the ability to sift through the massive information that’s available for consumption today.
It is also extremely effective to help other people to accelerate your personal growth. How? Teach them what you know. If you want to really learn something, the best way to understand it at the deepest level is to teach and share it. By doing this, you not only add value to your knowledge; you also add value to the lives of others.

Finally, another important part of knowing that personal growth is the key to success is recognizing that you have shortcomings. Use this knowledge to better yourself and seek ways to improve.

Once you have the right mindset and equip yourself with the skills and knowledge, you can be confident enough to pursue the path to success and reap the rewards of all your hard work.

I hope you find today’s post enlightening and I wish you well in your personal growth journey and quest for success. Do subscribe to my blog if you’d like to read more about similar subjects and feel free to share this in your social networks if you enjoyed it. Thanks!

To Your Success,

Elmar Sandyck

There’s no doubt about it. An exceptional customer service is the lifeblood of any business.

Getting people to buy, pay attention and spread the good word about your business is indeed the goal in sales and marketing. But more than the sales figures, we all know that it’s the relationships we create with people that truly matter.

And this is where exceptional customer service comes in. You can throw in a flashy website, impressive marketing materials and use the latest technology, but if your customer service is lousy, you can say goodbye to sales.

Now when we think about customer service, we instinctively think about a brick & mortar business. These tips also apply to every online business, because you obviously have customers and clients too. Most of these people you don’t meet face to face, but still, they are your customers, so treat them well. For every business, online or offline, exceptional customer service is crucial.

So, how have you been dealing with your customers? Ask yourself (and your team) the following questions:

• Are you reachable and available?
  There’s nothing more annoying for a customer than, say, calling to make an inquiry and no one picks it up, or sending an email and not get a reply. The customer not only ends up frustrated but also compels him to try and contact your competition! Always, always promptly respond to them.
• Do you keep promises?
  Customer service is all about forming relationships. If you promise to deliver something on Monday, make sure it’s delivered on Monday. Otherwise, just don’t say it. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Broken promises are a deal-breaker.
• Do you truly listen to your customers?
  Be it a comment, feedback, suggestions for improvement, a testimonial, and especially if it’s a complaint, take time to listen to your customers. Give them your full attention – this is essential in providing exceptional customer service.
• Does your staff’s attitude reflect the values of your company?
  Your staff is obviously an extension of your company. Before you send them out to deal with your customers, make sure that they have been trained to be generally helpful and knowledgeable, courteous, and friendly.
• Do you throw in something extra?
  Exceptional customer service is all about giving the unexpected. It could just be a genuine smile, helpful tips about using the product, or a free gift wrap. Customers always love it when they have this feeling of getting more than what they’re paying for.

In the end, you have to make sure that you send them away a satisfied customer, enough to pass along their positive feedback about your business to others. This is the classic word-of-mouth advertising that you can always rely on.

And it’s always priceless.

All of us look highly upon companies that provide great customer service – I know I always do. Do you think your company needs a “relationship check”? If you do, I hope you found the questions in this post helpful. Feel free to share this with your friends. Thank you and have a great day!

To Your Success,

Elmar Sandyck

Starting a business has been in your mind since God knows when. You pretty much have it clear in your memory, the kind of business you’re going to set up and all the steps you are taking from the get go.

By the looks of it, it seems like you are more than ready to start your business but still you haven’t.
So what’s keeping you from it?

Only one thing, your procrastination!

If there’s one thing that hampers your fast sprint to success, it’s that “I’ll Do It Tomorrow-Attitude”
Since I want to help people get rid of this nasty habit before it leads to sloth, I’m sharing with you some time-tested ways on how to stop procrastination.

Here you go:

• Refocus again and again and again on your goals

One thing that makes anyone successful is to have goals. But these goals are nothing when you don’t focus your energy and give your all to achieve them. It needs you to have tunnel focus, take your goals to heart at all cost.

Just like what they say, “You tell the universe what you want and all the cosmic forces of the universe will connive to make it come true.” That’s true no matter how rough the road appears to be, a race driver always has the heart to go for it. So go and be a race driver if you have to, just to reach your goals.

• Set goals that don’t require superhuman strength to achieve in a time frame

Deadlines are more than just dates. Remember the last time you forgot to pay your electricity bill, you rushed to the cashier fuming mad because you can’t watch your favorite football game if you won’t. That’s the same story for your business. If you are to finish off your sales inventory, do it in a time frame that makes it doable. And most of all … DO IT!

• A wise man makes a to-do list every day. Be smart and wise to follow it

It’s so easy to forget about small things yet these are more often the most significant. So if you don’t want to hire a personal assistant, make a to-do list daily and you’ll realize the wonders this can bring.

A very useful tip I can give you is this : make your to do list for the next day BEFORE you go to bed. This way, when you wake up, you know immediately what to start with. This little tip alone will provide you with extra productive time, each and every day again, time your competition hasn’t learned to get! Isn’t it a great tip about how to stop procrastination?

I still remember a friend whose child’s life was saved because she had written down the prescribed medicine her doctor gave her for an alternative treatment to asthma on a little note. That friend used to be a non-believer of organization until then.
So you see, big things can happen from small lists. So make one daily; that’s one thing you should about how to stop procrastination.

• Seize the day—Carpe Diem!

This doesn’t apply just to opportunities but to small errands you are challenged to take on each day. Have you ever thought what could have happened if you always set for tomorrow all things you should have done today? Well, I’m pretty sure the answer is nothing and you end up nothing as well.

Tomorrow you have new things to face so make yourself ready each day.

• Reward yourself when you did not procrastinate!

Nobody can give you the best drive to work or to walk an extra mile but yourself. It’s simple. Just aim for a diamond pendant when you reach your profit goal for the month. In the same way, you’re not allowed to dine out or go out on a date if you don’t.

Let’s bet together that if you won’t be able to follow this you’ll feel so bad you think you’re the worst disciplined.
You think it’s difficult to follow through? Think again. It’s all in the attitude and that attitude starts from a well-formed habit. So now you can see straight into your competitor’s eyes cause you know how to stop procrastination.

I’m sure you had fun reading this. If you want more articles like this, we can give you more. Just leave your name and email address on the opt in box below.

You can share the lessons you learned here to your friends. It’s simple. You just press that tiny green button to Tweet the article for all your followers to read. Thanks again and see you soon…

To Your Success,

Elmar Sandyck

Maybe this sounds like a stupid question, actually it was a question that popped up in my mind several days ago!

I always had the idea that all online marketers were young, techy and sexy… but is this really the case?

Are young people the only future of online marketing?

I don’t know about you, but when I started my online business I was 34, so I considered myself pretty young But when I started working online and learned about all the things I needed to know (and that I did NOT know) I thought to myself, WOW… I’m becoming pretty old.

I saw all these young guys & girls, teenagers, playing with the stuff I was struggling with. When I had their age they were babies, some of them even weren’t born yet, and now they can teach me…! This was pretty confrontational! Suddenly I felt VERY OLD! I had to do something…

That’s the world we live in, everything changes extremely fast, and when you don’t constantly educate yourself, within a few years or even months you are far behind. I had those thoughts in my mind…and I was only 34… Imagine what it is when you are 40, 50, 60 or older….

Of course your learning curve depends on the background and talents you have. When you did a job completely outside of the online world, if you were a cook your hole life for example, and you want to build an online business you’ll have to learn more than when you have an IT or marketing background, that’s pretty obvious… But the good news is…you can do it if you want to, that’s for sure. If you put in the time and effort…

But now, back to the first question…. : “Do You Have To Be Young, Techy And Sexy To Be A Successful Online Marketer?”

Well you know the answer right…?

OF COURSE YOU DON’T Have To Be Young, Techy and Sexy To Be A Successful Online Marketer!

Actually more and more people from all ages, from all social backgrounds and from all over the world start an online business. According to Forbes Magazine, 79,000,000 Americans plan to start their own businesses in the next 3 years.

The great majority will do it through a Network Marketing / Direct Sales model and will end up building their business online.

Think about this number… 79,000,000 Americans plan to start their own business the next 3 years!

In that number we don’t speak about people in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa! We only talk about people in America, so the actual number is a lot higher than 79,000,000 people…!

Do you see the potential…?

NOW is the time to position yourself so these people can find YOU to help and coach them.

The time to do it is NOW, not tomorrow, not within 3 years!

And don’t mind if you are not Young, Techy and Sexy… I’m not either!

It’s your determination, your work ethic and your people skills that’ll make you a successful online marketer, not your age, techyness and sexyness…!

Let me know if I can be of any assistance to help you position yourself AND to start in the right opportunity right away, so you don’t loose your most precious asset…. which is TIME!

To Your Success,

Elmar Sandyck

Did you read the title of this post?

I read it several months ago somewhere online or somewhere in a magazine, and honestly… IT HIT ME RIGHT IN THE FACE!

I’ve always had the desire to be great, even when I was a child, but sometimes, now as a grown-up I had thoughts in my mind telling me : “Hey Elmar, don’t be silly, that’s good enough man…” and worst of all, sometimes I believed those thoughts.

I’m really ashamed to admit that, cause this attitude really doesn’t helps us at all and it destroys our future…

Sorry if the rest of this post is very straight forward, but I really believe that this saying (the title) can help a bunch of people a lot. I don’t want to offend anyone, and honestly I partly wrote this post for myself, cause me too, sometimes I have this “That’s Good Enough Attitude”

Many Of Us In Our Professions, In Our Jobs And In Our Businesses Have Mediocre Attitudes.

It is now so rampant in our society that the attitude of just being good enough for something is already adequate. Many people believe that they don’t have to be good. Some think they just have to be lucky enough to qualify for whatever it is they are trying to qualify in.

Nearly no one nowadays seems to be outstanding and exemplary in what they do in every sort of way. And if they are being put under a stressful situation, they just buckle up and surrender then find another thing to be involved in again, carrying that mediocrity with him and the cycle just starts all over again.
The best attitude that can put an end to this useless cycle is a strong entrepreneurial attitude.

Many Of The Worker Drones Of Today Only Have The Consistency Of Their Collective Inconsistency.

Yes, and many of them don’t even know that. Yet, despite their overwhelming mediocrity, some of them will even reach the pinnacle of success, and get to raise themselves up from the rank and file floor to the prestigious level of the powerful executives.

All that is required from them to attain that is just be the best of all the mediocre people around him. Many of us who roam the halls of businesses and governance are no picture of being someone to look up to, that they are all just by the same token of mediocrity.

Here’s what happened to me last week in the supermarket…

A perfect example of mediocre service in society was my last week’s visit to the supermarket where I was looking for fresh onions. When I asked the lady guarding the stall, she just plainly said “we don’t have fresh deliveries of onions yet”. Well, because of my persistence (and my need for fresh onions), I still took the chance to ask the owner of the vegetables stall if they have some. What happened next was a quick one. The owner just went inside the stall and opened a small sack of fresh onions. When I was about to pay for them, I said to the stall lady, “I thought you said you didn’t have fresh onions”. All I got was a blank look and quipped “I didn’t know about it”.

Such a perfect example of mediocrity indeed. An apology would have sufficed, but all I got was a stern defense for her previous response to my request. That is just so incredibly mediocre.

Being contented with the just being “good enough” right now will definitely not lead you to the road to greatness. Each attitude would lead you to more little success. As an example an entrepreneurial attitude can bring you better relationships with people. Opting for improvement and application of the eight attitudes would help you much.

The question now is, how in the world are you going to learn about the entrepreneurial attitude?

Just fill in your data in the fields below and we’ll send you an email each time we do a new post on our blog, this way we can help you achieve the attitude of a successful online entrepreneur.

To Your Success,

Elmar Sandyck

P.S.

Did you hear about Mike Dillard’s newest brainchild? It’s called What’s Working Now… Check it out!

There are many of us in this world who have our own original ideas, skills or products that we would like to do on our own. For sure you would love to venture out and start yourself your own business, right?

Now, isn’t that what we all want…?

Nothing beats working on our own time with no demanding bosses to please and watch out for. Hey, if you own the business you are your own boss so that means you’ve got all the flexibility, all the opportunity and the possibility to make sure your dreams come true. You are sure to have all these when you developed an entrepreneurial mindset.

But do you know what it takes to become an entrepreneur?
For starters, there is also what we call the self-employed. Maybe you’re asking, “what’s the difference? That means you still own the business, right?” Yeah, you got that precisely. But what you probably don’t know is that there is a major difference between a self-employed and an entrepreneur. The difference is that an entrepreneur can still have the time to take a vacation in the Caribbean and attend the football games of their kids.

“Come on, a self-employed person can still have that” you might say
Again, you got the nail right in the head. They could still do the same things basically, but BARELY. It’s because if they take the time off they will lose an income or prospect, that’s why. Entrepreneurs on the other hand are seemingly making their businesses grow effortlessly and still making growth while sharing a hotdog on the stands with his son on a Saturday morning baseball game on the park. Just what really is their secret that allows them to have that luxury of time?

An Entrepreneurial Mindset is the answer
Developing a mindset like that of an entrepreneur is the key to achieving that freedom from your business while at the same time making it grow and develop for yourself multiple incomes that can definitely give you that Mediterranean cruise your wife has always been bugging you about.

So the question now is, how in the world are you going to learn about the entrepreneurial mindset?

Don’t lose sleep over that thought!

Fill in your data in the fields below so we can help you achieve the mind-set of successful entrepreneurs by sending you an email each time we do a new blogpost!

Till Next Time,

Elmar Sandyck

“Marketing Does NOT Focus On YOU!”

In fact, it is about putting yourself in your leads, prospects, or customers’ shoes and thinking, feeling, and perhaps acting like THEY do.

Generally speaking, this is the marketing psychology any online entrepreneur should have.

When you first had a leap of faith into the online business, you want to know all sorts of online techniques such as article marketing, social bookmarking, SEO, keyword research, PPC, social media and whatever new term or concept that you hear from other online marketers.

Although it’s true that these things are quite significant, you would be surprised to know that when you know a little bit of everything without understanding the concept of marketing, you have nowhere to go.

You can be super genius about SEO, Google Adwords, Article Marketing and the rest but without a sound approach to marketing, people will think that you are just one of those self-proclaimed gurus, greatly pretending that they know everything.

Without the right approach to marketing, you are bound for disaster as people would turn away from you, thinking you are another egoistic fool who claims to help others when all you think about is profit.

I’ll give you a real-life experience I had with a professional kitchen builder. With this experience, I learned much about the right marketing psychology.

My wife and I attempted several times to butt in and show him what we wanted for our dream kitchen. After all, we are the customers. But the young salesman would not stop, he talked and talked and talked…, but he DID NOT LISTEN!. After an hour, we both got tired and just grabbed the piece of paper where he illustrated his plan for the kitchen. Honestly, we liked it but it was not what we wanted.

Days after we decided to look for another kitchen builder, we came into a kitchen store where a nice guy greeted us. He talked a bit about what services they offer; then the rest of the time he asked as questions and listened while we did the talking. From that conversation, he was able to come up with a kitchen design that is exactly what we want and need. So we ended up buying from the new guy.

You might be saying, “Well, Elmar what the guy did was nothing extraordinary.” Indeed, it’s something that you usually experience in a mall or a restaurant but still it is not practiced online. Online, people are only selling without asking and listening to what people need.

That’s not the way it works. Remember that although offline and online businesses demand different strategies and techniques, the bottom line is you are still dealing with people, who feel, think, and act like the ones you meet in real life. The same principles and the same marketing psychology run for any business, whether you are selling cars offline or you are selling a software online.

Take Care,

Elmar Sandyck