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Unlock Your Brain’s Hidden Potential

Your Short Guide to Ultimate Brain Health

Your brain is just like any other part of your body. In order to maintain optimum function and to get the very most from it, you need to treat it right.

And this is rather important, seeing as your brain is responsible for pretty much everything you do. Whether it’s the obviously ‘mental’ stuff, like concentrating at work or performing complex sums; whether it’s physical stuff like regulating your breathing, helping you sleep and directing your movements; or whether it’s managing your emotions and helping you to feel happy and calm.

Whatever it is you’re doing or experiencing, your brain is at the route of it. And thus you can improve every aspect of the human experience just by focussing on your brain health.

How Your Brain Function Can be Enhanced

The trouble is that many people have very little idea just how to go about looking after their brains. This is the most previous piece of equipment in the world – more powerful than infinite supercomputers – but we tend to just ignore it and hope it all works out okay.

In fact, a lot of the time, we unintentionally subject it to a fair amount of abuse!

For starters, most of us eat entirely the wrong diet and this means our body doesn’t have access to the raw materials it needs in order to maintain optimum brain function. In the short term, this makes us feel groggy and slow but in the long term, it can lead to cumulative damage that results in neurological diseases and age-related cognitive decline. That’s right: it’s not inevitable that you should become forgetful and cantankerous as you get older!

The other problem is that most of us don’t use our brains enough. We don’t challenge them and we don’t train them. Due to a phenomenon called ‘brain plasticity’, it is actually possible for us to train and grow our brains just like a muscle. New neurons can be created and new connections can be formed and strengthened. This all means that it’s possible for us to develop certain brain areas beyond others and actually enhance our abilities as a result.

But when you stop challenging your brain or training it, it can lead to all kinds of problems. Especially when you combine that with high levels of stress and the aforementioned poor diet…

How You Started Destroying Your Brain With Bad Nutrition and Stress

The way that most people eat these days is enough to severely damage our health and lead to serious problems.

As mentioned previously, the brain needs a large number of very specific nutrients in order to function well. These include the all-important precursors to various neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that change our mood and the way they think – they help us to sleep, to feel good, to focus and to remember things.

But the brain makes these neurotransmitters out of vitamins, minerals and amino acids. If you aren’t getting enough l-tyrosine for instance, then you might struggle to make dopamine – the neurotransmitter responsible for helping us to focus, stay motivated and remember things. Meanwhile, tryptophan is what the brain uses to create the ‘feel good’ neurotransmitter serotonin. This is then later converted to melatonin to help us sleep.

Vitamin B6 is a building block for numerous neurotransmitters including dopamine, epinephrine (focus), serotonin and GABA (calmness). Choline, found in eggs, is the precursor to acetylcholine which can improve pretty much every single aspect of your cognitive function!

Then there are the countless other crucial nutrients that the brain needs to perform optimally. For example, healthy arbs are what fuel the brain with energy, antioxidants protect the brain cells from free radicals and zinc enhances brain plasticity.

But most of us are not getting anywhere near enough nutrients in our diets. That’s because we eat far too much ‘processed foods’. Processed foods contain lots of calories to make us feel full but they are ‘empty calories’ that are devoid of the things we need.

Meanwhile, our switch to a more modern diet that doesn’t include things like fish, mean that even those who try to eat ‘healthily’ are generally not getting the things they need. A perfect example of this is the modern lack of omega 3 fatty acid. Omega 3 is a fatty acid found in fish (and some plants), which aids with ‘cell membrane permeability’ (especially the DHA form). This is important because it allows things to pass more easily through the cell walls – good things like nutrients and signals from other parts of the body. At the same time, omega 3 fatty acid is also used by the brain to create a number of hormones that are linked with managing the blood. This way, omega 3 is able to reduce blood pressure and heart problems.

Most importantly though, this also allows omega 3 fatty acid to reduce inflammation in the brain and the predominance of ‘pro-inflammatory cytokines’. This is highly important, seeing as pro-inflammatory cytokines are what make you feel so groggy and confused when you’re poorly or very tired. Brain fog is a serious problem and it’s made worse by the fact that most of us also have far too much omega 6 fatty acid. Omega 6 fatty acid is a useful nutrient in its own right but when we get too much of it, it can actually lower omega 3 and cause more inflammation. Most of us have far too much omega 6, because it is used in all kinds of preservative oils.

This is then combined with chronic dehydration, which most of us experience on a daily basis. Dehydration can also cause inflammation in the brain, while also generally leading to sluggish performance.

These processed foods are also examples of ‘simple carbs’ – carbs that have no sustenance and which the body processes very quickly. This results in a sudden spike in blood sugar that provides you with a burst of energy, followed by an immediate trough straight afterward.

Then there are all the toxins and high quantities of sugars that we consume regularly – and the cancer causing free-radicals.

Is it any wonder that you struggle to think through the thick haze sometimes?

The Role of Stress

Even worse is the role of stress. Today, it’s a sad fact that a great number of us experience chronic stress, leading to elevated levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in our systems. This has a number of serious negative effects on our health and on our brain function in particular.

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Three Powerful Passive Business Models

Three Powerful Passive Business Models -- A Five Minute GuideA Five Minute Guide

Do you like the sounds of making money without having to work?

That’s pretty much a rhetorical question. I am pretty sure that the answer is going to be ‘yes’ for the vast majority of people. Why wouldn’t you want to earn money without having to work?

Of course for most of us, this isn’t likely to become a reality any time soon and there’s always going to be effort involved in making a good living.

But while you might not be able to get ‘something for nothing’, there is a good chance that you can bring in profit that is vastly disproportionate to the work you do. And what’s more, is that you can stop ‘swapping your time for money’.

And in fact, you can do all that quite easily.

What I’m talking about here is ‘passive income’. This isn’t ‘getting money for nothing’ but rather it means setting up a business model that can eventually sustain itself with little-to-no input from you.

That’s right: you create an automated system of selling or of publishing adverts, or of recommending products and from there, you can continuously earn money… indefinitely!

So you have put work in but once you’ve done that. You can simply kick back and relax and let the cash come rolling in.

You aren’t trading time for money anymore. That means that you’ll go to bed and wake up the next day a little richer. And it means that you’ll be able to go on holiday and continue to earn. And it means that if a friend invites you out for the day, you can just drop whatever you’re doing and go – no need to tell employers or clients.

Better yet, because passive income is automated and requires no further input from you, that means that you can continue to repeat the same business model over and over again and thereby increase your earnings over and over again too! This is called ‘scaling’ and eventually, you can be earning massive money by having multiple ‘income streams’ all working at once.

It’s kind of amazing…

But Let’s Get Real: Is Passive Income Really That Easy? Can Anyone Do It?

But you’ve probably heard promises like this before right? Normally on ‘make money’ websites that promise expensive schemes that involve illicit activities, usually involving ‘tricking’ Google in some way or another and often involving a lot of complicated jargon.

You buy the ebook, you read through it… and then you just give up, frustrated.

Is passive income really possible for everyone? Or is it just a pipe dream?

The answer is that it is very possible – but you just need to think about it in the right way.

For starters, you need to recognize that passive income does not equate to a get-rich-quick scheme. There is a lot of work involved and you’re not going to start seeing massive money overnight. If you go into this expecting to get rich with minimal effort, then in all likelihood you’re going to come away very disappointed.

Instead, you should get into this looking for a way to supplement your current income and lifestyle and to earn extra cash without having to work hard for it constantly. Best of all, this is a way you can earn while doing something that you love.

Creating a blog or selling a product can help you to generate additional income without having to continuously put in long hours. That means you can do it on top of your regular business or regular job. And even if you only earn $50 a week – that’s $200 a month. That in turn is enough to go on a few extra holidays a year, to put aside some serious savings, or to treat yourself to some exciting gadgets.

And it’s all from writing about something you love and from creating a business model that you can really be proud of.

And once you start seeing that cash flow and you stop trying to ‘get rich’, you’ll find that it’s surprisingly easy to keep it growing and to keep that money coming in.

And you can even repeat the strategy you just employed in order to multiply the income several times over.

The other thing to recognize, is that you need to be smart about the way you approach these business models. The key is very much to work smart rather than hard. You need to be able to understand the thought process of your audience and you need to know how to create something that will work without wasting lots of time and effort on small details that really don’t matter.

But I’m not just going to tell you what not to do. I’m also going to help you actually get started with one of these smart business models so that you can begin seeing that passive income pour in right away.

In this guide, you’re going to learn three simple ways to start making money while you sleep. And all of them will be simple, effective and easy to implement…

Selling a Digital Product Online

One of the easiest ways to start making passive income is to sell a digital product online. This is what Tim Ferriss calls a ‘muse’ – a very simple sales process that will bring in cash to fund the things that you care more about.

So where do you start?

First, you need to acquire said digital product. A digital product is anything that you can sell that doesn’t have a tangible aspect. A good example here is an ebook but video courses also work well, as do email courses.

Whatever the case, a digital product has the benefit of being completely free to produce (no overheads) and not requiring any delivery or storage. This means you can create it once and then sell it indefinitely. And you can also use a digital delivery system to take payments and then send the product.

To make this product, you can either spend some time doing it yourself (an ebook is just a PDF in most cases, which you can make with MS Word) or you can hire someone to do it for you. Writers and writing agencies are easy to find online and won’t normally cost you that much (a few hundred dollars often for an entire ebook).

You’re then going to create a sales page. This is going to be a single page designed to sell your product using persuasive writing and a smart layout. It’s very important that this page be well designed because you need to gain the confidence of your audience and look like a ‘real business’. There must be no concern in their mind that their payment might get lost in transit, or that you’re going to take their money and then never deliver the actual product.

It’s also very important that you make it as quick and easy as possible for people to checkout. That means they should be able to click ‘buy’ without having to worry about entering their payment information or sign up. Most sales are made on an impulsive basis and in order to take full advantage of that, you need to ensure your site allows for those impulsive purchases!

Finally, you’re going to use Facebook Ads in order to target your advert to the right people in a way that means you’re only paying when someone actually clicks one of the ads. You get to set how much you’re willing to pay for each of those clicks, which means that you’re going to be able to ensure that you’re earning more money overall than you’re spending.

In short, the right people get sent to your sales page, they get tempted by your sales pitch and they quickly and easily check out.

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Aspiring Lifestyle Entrepreneurs: Discover A Step-By-Step Guide To Live, Work, and Play Anywhere in the World Find Out The Exact Steps And Techniques!

The 7 Step Roadmap To Freedom - A Guide For Aspiring Digital Nomads

Becoming a digital nomad means becoming a pioneer. This is a way of working that would have been completely unthinkable even 15 years ago but now, thanks to the available technology, there’s no reason that we can’t take our laptops and start travelling around the world.

It’s taking a while for the world to catch up though. Many of us still work 9-5 jobs in stuffy offices, feeling stressed and far too exhausted at the end of the day to do anything worthwhile with our lives.

There’s an incredible, beautiful world out there and so much to see, do and explore. And yet most of us spend our lives working and sitting in the same dull rooms. We’re stressed, we’re bored and we’re exhausted.

Is this really what life should be like? And when the alternative is right there in front of you why would you continue to subject yourself to such a style of living? It’s time to make a change – and I’m going to show you how in 7 easy-but-powerful steps.

Step 1: Envision Your Journey

Notice I didn’t say plan yet. That’s because you’re not going to plan your journey just yet but you do need to have an idea in mind of what you want to do and where you want to go. Think about the countries you’d like to see, look for any particular landmarks or activities you’d like to get involved in and decide how long you want to go for.

While this isn’t a set-in-stone plan yet, what you are going to do is to try and be a little realistic at this point and decide exactly the kind of travelling you want to do and how you want to do it. And it also means thinking about the kind of travel you can do. Because being a digital nomad can mean different things to different people.

If you’re married with kids, then you might find it hard to up and leave. You’d have to either take them out of school, or be without them for long stretches. But that doesn’t mean you can’t still live the lifestyle – how about being a digital nomad within the country and working in different amazing places around where you are? Or how about going on lots of smaller trips?

If you choose to go for an open-ended trip, even better. But in that case, think about whether you want to go somewhere touristy, whether you want to go to Europe, or whether you’re going to climb mountains. Maybe you’ll do all three and you’ll plot a map through multiple countries.

Step 2: Ask Your Boss

A lot of people don’t feel terribly comfortable about starting an online business. Does that mean that they have to give up on the dream of being a digital nomad?

Not at all! Actually, they can just as easily become digital nomads by doing a ‘regular job’ but taking it on the road with them. Try speaking to your boss and see if you can do your current job while you’re travelling. If they say no, then try speaking with your current boss about the possibility of doing a different role within the organization. It’s nerve-wracking but you’ll probably find they’re more amenable to the idea than you expect. It is the 21st century after all…

No? Then another option is to look for other jobs. Again, this can be ‘normal’ employment just like you’d normally look for. The only difference is that you’re going to look for jobs that specifically lend themselves to working online. That could mean working on web design (which of course can easily be done online in most cases), being a copywriter or anything else. Some jobs will even mention in the job description that they allow you to work from home (which means ‘from anywhere’ to us!). Always be sure to double check in the interview though.

Step 3: Create Your Own Online Business

Failing that, you can create your own online business. This is a relatively easy thing to do, you just need to provide a service online and find clients who are willing to pay for that service.

So you might be a writer, a web designer, or a consultant. Alternatively, you could sell photography, you could run a blog or a vlog, you could look for a company to sponsor you on social media or you could sell a digital product or an affiliate product. There are tons of different business models you can run easily online and this is something you shouldn’t be afraid to experiment with.

Note that this doesn’t mean you have to hand in your notice tomorrow (as much as you might like to). There’s no need to take unnecessary risk, so instead, why not try creating an online business in your spare time to test your model and then quitting your day job only once you have proven that this method works.

Step 4: Find Your Gear

Now you need to get your tools and gear for travel and working on the go. Whenever you go travelling for a long time, your travel gear is going to be an essential consideration. However, when you go travelling for a long time and you’re going to be working online – then it becomes even more important still!

So what does the budding internet entrepreneur need to take with them on their travels?

In terms of your general travel equipment, you’ll of course need a bag. Invest in a good bag because this is going to be a highly important tool for you in the future. You’re going to use this every single day to keep your things in and thus it needs to be light and convenient to carry, while also protecting your worldly possessions and keeping them safe. Look for something with plenty of pockets and that is going to be small enough stow under your seat on the plane (this will save you a TON of time).

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The Modern SEO Blueprint Report

SEO has changed a lot since the days when you could just create a bunch of low quality links to your website and expect to rank at the top of your SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Google is constantly getting smarter and is constantly iterating on its algorithms and if we’re going to keep bringing in traffic, then we need to know how to adapt.

In fact, continuing with outdated SEO strategies is not only unlikely to work – it can actually damage the status of your site and even result in your site being entirely de-indexed. It is entirely crucial then that you stay up-to-date with your SEO strategies then and that you stay one step ahead of Google’s algorithm updates.

This guide will show you exactly how to do that with a step-by-step guide that will provide you with a complete blueprint including everything you need to do to see massive improvements in your SEO.

Why Old SEO Methods NO Longer Work

Perhaps the best way for us to illustrate how SEO needs to be approached today, is to first examine what doesn’t work anymore and how SEO has evolved since its earlier days.

When Google was first introduced, it worked using a couple of simple processes. In order to find new content on the web, Google will use scripts known as ‘robots’ and ‘spiders’. These trawl the net by looking for links and then add the content from each site to a giant index.

When a user searches for a specific term, Google then checks the index against the search term to find the best match.

Inbound links have always been important for SEO then, as they provide Google’s spiders with a means of actually finding your site. At the same time though, Google also views inbound links as referrals or testimonies. In other words, Google assumes that your website must be good if it has lots of links pointing at it – because that means other content creators must be recommending the site to their fans.

Google can also use links as a way to deduce the topic of the website. If the links come from sites about dogs, then it is probable that your site is about dogs. And especially if the anchor text used in the link says ‘best dog website’.

The other historically important element of SEO is keywords. Keywords, or ‘key phrases’, are the terms that users search for when looking for content. This is what Google would use to try and find a ‘match’ in its index – and without keywords, it wouldn’t be able to pair the right results with the right searches.

Thus, in order to get to the top of the SERPs, all a creator once had to do was:

- Build as many links as possible

- Repeat the keywords frequently within the anchor text and within the copy of the website

But then things changed…

And changed again…

Enter Panda and Penguin

While this system worked on the whole for Google, it was only a matter of time until marketers would begin taking advantage of it. It became common-knowledge that you could game the system by creating lots of links and lots of content and this resulted in some bad practices among site owners.

Link spam became common for instance, with users posting thousands of links on sites all around the net, regardless of whether they were relevant or high quality. Meanwhile, many site owners began writing low-quality content, with keywords ‘stuffed’ into them.

Keyword stuffing essentially means repeating the same keywords over and over again, regardless of whether they fit naturally into the content. For instance, a website about buying hats might have content that reads like:

“Welcome to buyhatsonline.com where you can buy hats online! If you’re looking to buy hats online, then this is the best buy hats online website!”
As you can see, this doesn’t exactly ‘flow’ naturally.

Some site owners even began using ‘content spinners’, which would recycle old content by swapping words for synonyms. In short, a lot of dross began to rise to the top of the SERPs and Google had to respond.

It responded with two updates to the algorithm called ‘Panda’ and ‘Penguin’, released in 2011 and 2012 respectively. Panda was designed to reward high quality content by looking for in-depth articles, external links and more refined use of key phrases. Penguin meanwhile was designed to punish link spam by making the quality of the links as important as the quantity. In other words, strategies were forced to shift from posting thousands of links, to landing links on the biggest and most popular websites in their niche.

While this improved the performance of Google dramatically, it was actually a very bad time for lots of creators who had been advised to use old-fashioned SEO techniques and now were having their sites penalized or de-indexed as a result. Businesses lost thousands of daily views over night and many went on to proclaim that SEO as an industry was ‘dead’.

This has changed our approach to SEO dramatically but even that is not the end of the story. Since then, Google has been continuously iterating on its search and building upon this more solid foundation. More updates like ‘Pigeon’ helped to strengthen things like local search, while Panda and Penguin have been refined greatly.

Also interesting though are the ways that Google itself seems to be evolving and the clear path that it is on. Google is moving from being a simple search engine to become a fully-blown AI. Google no longer aims to ‘match’ keywords but rather tries to understand the actual question being asked. To that end, it has begun to use smarter methods of assessing content – such as using ‘latent semantic indexing’ and even ‘structured data’. Search has become more personal and has integrated with other tools like Google Plus to that end.

Google Home and Google Pixel perfectly demonstrate this vision that Google has for its search – allowing users to simply ask questions and being presented with an answer.

Moving forward, this is likely to increasingly become Google’s MO. And then we have other factors to consider such as real time updates to Google Penguin.

Only the creators that are smart enough to keep their SEO up-to-date and future proofed against upcoming changes will be able to survive and thrive as Google continues to evolve. And that’s what you’re going to learn right here…

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The 7-Step Blueprint to Launching Your First Product

A product launch is a fantastic strategy that digital marketers can use to ensure that they truly maximize the sales potential of their digital products.

If you’ve spent time or money creating an ebook, an online course or a piece of software, then you need to ensure that it makes maximum impact when it goes live. If you just quietly release your product by adding a download link to your website, then you’re going to miss out on thousands of sales – not to mention the opportunity to work with affiliates, to build authority and to strengthen your brand.

A good product launch can take a poor-selling product and turn it into a bestseller. In this guide, you’re going to learn exactly what it takes to manage a successful product launch and to ensure that people can’t wait for your product to go live.

And we’re going to do it in just 7 simple steps…

1 Create Your Digital Product

Of course, the first thing you’ll need to do in order to launch a digital product is make one. Until you do this, you’ll have nothing to launch and that means you can’t expect to make much of a splash when you go live!

So what is a digital product? There are plenty of options here but some of the most popular choices for marketers are:

- Ebook
- Online course
- Video series
- Seminar
- WordPress theme or plugin
- Other software

Any of these will give you the ability to sell unlimited copies with zero overheads. That in turn means that you can recruit affiliates and share your revenue and it means that you’re minimizing the likelihood of a failure. Your product can’t fail when you only need to sell one item to breakeven!

Make sure that your product is unique, that it is original and that it has a real ‘emotional hook’ that will draw in your buyers. You can also help it to sell more by adding lots of extras, whether that means videos, access to a VIP area on a website or perhaps a free report.

Making the product means either writing an ebook in Word, creating a video with some filming and editing equipment, or outsourcing the entire process to a third party using a freelancing site like UpWork (www.upwork.com).

2 Tease Your Digital Product

If you have an audience already as a blogger or a social media marketer, then that means that you have a built-in customer base that you can market to.

That also means that you can start to build anticipation and interest for your product as early as possible. Don’t announce your product yet (we’ll come to that in a moment) but instead make it known that you have something on the horizon. You can do this simply by saying:

“Stay tuned because I have something very exciting to reveal in the coming weeks… it’s going to change everything!”

This allows you to follow the recommended sequence when it comes to hyping and selling a product: AIDA. That stands for:

Awareness
Interest
Desire
Action

Here, you are piquing interest and making your audience aware that something is going to be available in the future. That will make them more receptive when you eventually share more information and it’s also a good example of something known as ‘presuasion’.

This is also a particularly good time to ask your audience what they would like to see. This is one of the great things about a product launch – it gives you time to consult with your audience and to make sure that they actually are interested in the thing you’re about to spend ages developing. By getting your audience to vote on the kinds of things they’d like to see from you, you can get them more involved in the product (and thus more emotionally invested) and you can also verify that the audience exists so that you aren’t risking spending a long time developing a product that no one will go on to buy…

For that reason, this step two should actually start around the same time as step one. Once you begin work, let people know while simultaneously keeping the nature of that product shrouded in mystery.

3 Create Your Launch Materials

Now you’re going to create your launch and marketing materials.

So that means you’re going to make your press release (a letter that you will send to the press, telling them about your new product and why everyone should care), a sales page (a single page that exists solely to promote your product and collect sales) and maybe some other things like some email swipes for your audience and maybe some banners, cover materials etc.

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Introduction

If you’re working from home, then your ability to get lots done and stay on task is going to have a huge, direct impact on your lifestyle and happiness. Finish early and you have the option to simply head downstairs, make a cup of coffee and start relaxing! There’s no commute, no boss looking over your shoulder, and no requirement to work set hours (so long as the work gets done). Heck, you could even put that extra time to good use by starting a side project, further developing your skills, etc.

Then there’s the fact that working from home can mean working in your perfect work environment, near to the people you love, and with the freedom to come and go as you please – or even to completely change your work hours!

But if you don’t have the discipline and motivation to actually get work done, then it can be a completely different story. Now you’re more likely to find the experience highly stressful and overwhelming: you might well find yourself with a huge list of tasks that you have no idea how to tackle. The line between downtime and work might have become blurred, and you might be constantly working late, forgetting to shave, and generally failing to maintain a work-life balance.

Read on and you’ll discover 21 productivity tips, hacks, and ideas that can make a huge difference. They have been organized into categories for your convenience!

1. Eat the Frog

Eating the frog is an expression that comes from a Mark Twain quote: “If it is your job to eat a frog, then you should do that first thing in the morning. If it is your job to eat two frogs, then you should eat the biggest, ugliest one first.” What this tells us, is that it is sensible to tackle the biggest and most difficult project first. By doing that, you make sure that you have provided the maximum value each day, and you do the hardest work while you have the most energy and resolve.

2. Kaizen

Kaizen is a Japanese term that comes from the country’s manufacturing industry. This term refers to the process of making lots of tiny changes to a process, in order to see a large cumulative benefit over time.

For example, if your computer currently take 5 minutes to boot up, and you start it up twice a day, that means you’re losing 10 minutes of productive time daily. Either you could use that time to do something else (make a call for instance), or you could upgrade your computer. Either way, you might now only spend 2 minutes booting up.

That’s now reduced your wasted time from 50 minutes a week (200 minutes per month) to 14 minutes per week (56 minutes per month). That’s a gigantic difference. Changing the order you complete tasks can have a similar impact.

3. The One Minute Rule

This rule states that we should always complete tasks immediately if they will take less than one minute. This removes them from our mind, meaning that they aren’t hanging over us and causing stress.

4. The 80/20 Law

The 80/20 law tells us that 80% of your yield will come from 20% of your work. The key to being as effective as possible then, is to identify that crucial 20% that is going to result in the most profit.

5. Pomodoro

The Pomodoro technique is a technique that involves setting timers for when to work and when to take a break. This structured approach ensures you get a break (removing the urge to procrastinate) but allows you to carefully define when and for how long.

6. RescueTime

RescueTime is an app that you can use in order to monitor just how much time you spend on each task during the day. They say that “that which is monitored, improves.” In other words, when you see where your time is actually going, you will be given greater control over how to spend said time.

7. Todoist

Todoist is a to do app. This app makes it very easy to create new tasks thanks to a powerful natural language engine: you can make the tasks by speaking just as your normally would! It also offers a lot of integration with other powerful apps and tools.

8. Apple Watch

An Apple Watch is a surprisingly powerful tool for productivity. Not only does it allow you to get notifications on your wrist (meaning your phone can stay firmly in your pocket), but it can even let you add todo items and more to your wrist, making sure that they are always easily accessible.

9. Notion

Described by some as a “second brain,” Notion is an extremely powerful note-taking app that lets you create web pages, tables, lists, embedded images and videos, and MUCH more. It’s extremely flexible and easy to use, and essentially it can adapt to however you wish to use it.

10. Freedom

Freedom is an app that will allow you to block specific apps and websites on your computer. This is powerful stuff for those who find themselves distracted by Facebook or other websites when they’re meant to be working!

Get More Done by Typing Faster

In the digital age, a lot of what we consider 'productivity' happens on the computer. Being productive tends to mean writing e-mails, filling in data entry and writing copy. In all these cases, typing is our main form of 'output' and that means we will always be limited by the speed at which we can type when it comes to productivity.

Learn to type at the speed of thought then and in theory you could drastically upgrade your productivity and complete a lot more work in a day. Read on and we will look at how you can learn to type faster.

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It is natural for human beings to compare themselves with others. If this didn’t take place then nobody would be able to see how well they are doing. Most people do not use comparisons in a good way and end up causing themselves all kinds of problems.

Unhealthy comparisons can cause low self esteem, dependency and even depression. If you are constantly comparing yourself with others and becoming bitter and angry then you need to stop doing it.

The techniques in this guide will help you to stop comparing yourself with others in a negative way. You will need to work on these techniques to perfect them so that everything is on autopilot. There is no miracle solution.

How do you really think about yourself? We all have an opinion about ourselves and this is a very important step to take if you want to stop comparing yourself with others in a negative way. You need to be aware of the root cause as to why you keep comparing yourself in an unhealthy way.

This is not the easiest thing to do but you must do it. It is essential for you to break the pattern that you have of negative comparisons with others. You can ask a trusted friend or family member to help you with this task and support you through the process.

Write down how you see yourself at the moment. This will help you to identify the behavior that you need to change. Accept the fact that changing this behavior is going to take time and effort and break everything down into smaller achievable steps.

Having low self esteem is a major reason why people make negative comparisons with others. Self esteem is all about the feelings that you have for yourself. You are going to have some negative feelings and some positive feelings. If the negative feelings far outweigh the positive feelings then you definitely need to work on your self esteem.

If you tend to let others control how you feel then this is a sign of low self esteem. You do not want to be reliant on others to feel happy about your life. It is a good idea to work on improving your self esteem every day regardless of how you feel about yourself at this current moment.

When you feel the need to compare yourself to others write down your thoughts and feelings about this. Why did you want to compare yourself to somebody else in the first place? As soon as you experience these thoughts then write them down. Add as much detail as you can.

If you have already made the comparison then ask yourself how you felt about it. Be sure to record all of the feelings and thoughts that you have about this. Be specific here and write down the exact reasons for feeling down about a comparison. For example a co--worker got a promotion before you did.

This is not always easy to do but certainly worth the effort. Think back to a time when you didn’t feel the need to compare yourself with others. Write this down in your journal and keep thinking about the time when you started to make regular comparisons.

This is powerful because it can help to identify the root causes behind your comparison habit. For example you may have compared yourself to your sister in a negative way because you felt that she got more attention from your parents than you did.

Often people do not realize the damage that negative comparisons do to them. When you write down how a comparison makes you feel then you will develop the necessary motivation to change this destructive habit.

Most people take the things that they already have in their life for granted. So we recommend that you record a gratitude statement in your journal every day. This will certainly help you to focus on yourself more than you do others.

Think about the positive things in your life that you are truly grateful for. You are healthy, you have a loving relationship, you have wonderful children, you have great family and friends, you have a job so that you can pay your bills and so on.

Write down three things that you are grateful for in your journal every day. When you do this reflect on how lucky you are to have them. Use statements like “I am so grateful to have my health” or “I am so grateful to have my family”. This will help you to realize that there are a lot more things in your life that are more important than having a new car for example.

One of the real downsides of comparing yourself in a negative way to others is that you identify reasons why you are not as good as they are. This is nonsense of course but in the moment these feelings are very strong.

This can result in you beating yourself up severely and telling yourself that you are not good enough, useless or worse. Instead of doing this praise yourself for who you are and how far you have come. This will put you in a positive frame of mind and inspire you to do more with your life.

Never forget that you are in control of your life. It can be really difficult to stop comparing yourself to others in a bad way but the only person who can change your life for the better is you. So take responsibility to do that and stop letting others control you.

Stop worrying about what other people have in their lives. You are the most important person in your life and if you are not happy with things as they are then decide that you are going to change. The world does not owe you anything and neither does anyone else.

This is an essential step to prevent you from comparing yourself to others in an unhealthy way but it is also the toughest. You have built up this need to compare yourself over several years and these kinds of patterns are the hardest to break. But break them you must.

It will help you when you understand the process involved with making changes to your thoughts and behaviors. The process comprises of a number of stages that increase awareness of the problem and then implementing the necessary change for improved behavior.

The first of these stages is called pre--contemplation. At this stage you are not ready to make any changes and this is usually due to the fact that you do not have enough information about the problem and why you should change.

Next is the contemplation stage where you are thinking about making a change in your thoughts and behavior. You start to think about the positive aspects of making such a change while also realizing that this can be quite painful to do.

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We’re going to share with you the software and hardware required to set up and host a successful virtual summit. You may be surprised to read how little you need. The most expensive items on the market may not be the best, so we’ll provide our recommendations on what you’ll need to get started.

1. Webcam

Get yourself a good quality, portable webcam that is easy to use. Whilst most laptops have built-in webcams, their quality is often low. Essentially, you’re looking for a webcam that can produce high-definition output.

People tend to gravitate towards a webcam with a USB connectivity, but there are also options for wireless models with connectivity by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.

Overall, the best webcam for video conferencing is by Logitech.

Video can be streamed in full HD (i.e. 1080p), however, you’ll find almost every decent camera will shoot at 1080p. The images and videos are sharp, crisp and vibrant. This camera by Logitech passes sharpness, accuracy and low light performance. The device is compatible with many different computing devices and operating systems.

The audio feature has a dual integrated microphone placed on each side of the camera. It captures natural sound so that there is no delay, minimal muffle or echo. However, we do recommend a good quality microphone instead of the one on the camera.

The device itself is attractive, portable and durable. It’s also reasonably priced, which is always an added bonus.
2. Microphone

Testing, Testing. 123. Testing.

Think of choosing a microphone as an investment. They are great for podcasting and, of course, when interviewing for your virtual summit.

One of the best options is by Blue. Blue has found the sweet spot and created an affordable, simple but amazing quality microphone.

Our second option is by Rode Microphones. This one is about $50USD more expensive. Both options are great and it will come down to personal preference.

3. Video recording software

Lucky for us there are heaps of options when choosing video recording software, including free options. Let start from one of the most popular options.
a) Zoom

Key features:

• Breakout rooms allow you to split into 50+ rooms for separate discussions.
• Easy call options including dedicated dial-in numbers.
• Screen sharing between participants
• Good group messaging options
• Opportunity to upload PPT, PDF, and DOC files
• Engagement tools like polling, Q&As, and virtual hand-raising (click to raise your hand and speak. This is a great feature so that everyone doesn’t start talking on top of each other).

Zoom is probably the most popular web conferencing software out there. It’s super easy to use, by simply sending your contact a designated link to the meeting, and a PIN. You can record, and introduce slides or a whiteboard for example for a more interactive type approach.

The cons with this software are at times it’s difficult to join the meeting via the browser. It is encouraged to download the software and test multiple times before executing (like all software). Secondly, it has low Cloud storage.

b) Webex

Key features:

• Extra tools like polling, whiteboard, and more
• Noise detection for less background distractions
• Third-party recording options
• Excellent security and encryption

Webex software is straightforward: With just a few clicks it will help you start a meeting, switch presenter or open the whiteboard. No time is wasted trying to work out what to do next.

The con with this software is there are limited features on the free plan, so be prepared to upgrade.

Explore your options; it will come down to personal preference and affordability. In most cases, you’ll be given a free trial for up to a week to test the software features.

4. Video editing software

The good news here is that the best free video editing software for Macs and PCs let you do almost everything paid software can do. In our experience, the best free video editing software is more than likely going to be good enough for you to edit your footage. If, however, you require additional features, many of the free editing suites allow you to purchase them separately.

We think the best free video editing software overall is HitFilm Express. It works with both Macs and PCs and is powerful but easy to use, and customizable to your needs.

While HitFilm is free, the company offers add-on packs which range in price and include features like 360-degree video editing, 3D titles, as well as advanced color-grading tools and noise reduction.

Mac users who only need a simple video editor will find that Apple iMovie is the best free video editing software, because of its strong integration with Apple’s operating system and easy-to-grasp editing tools. iMovie supports 4K video and has some good tools for smoothing shaky video, adding titles, and even soundtracks from music in your iTunes library. If all you’re doing is stitching together some video from a family event and then seamlessly posting them to YouTube, Vimeo, or even watching it on an Apple TV, then iMovie will work like a charm.

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Internet marketing has done a LOT of great things for businesses. This is especially true for individual entrepreneurs and marketers. People who once wouldn’t have stood a chance of going head--to--head with big businesses now finally have the same means for reaching gigantic audiences and tracking metrics. This has levelled the playing field and essentially enabled thousands of happy marketers to retire early to their own private islands (well, maybe a few).

Either way though, tools like email marketing, Facebook ads, Google ads, SEO, content marketing and more are a godsend for the small business.

The only problem? These tools in some way make things a little bit too easy. That’s especially true when you think of those ready--made business--in--a--box type offers. You know the ones: the ones where you buy a digital product to sell, along with your email sequence, your sales page, and more.

The issue with this is that while those systems might work well, the buyer doesn’t really understand how to use them. And as such, they don’t get the full benefit.

What’s worse, is that because we’re so reliant on all these “easy wins,” many of us have lost some of the most fundamental and powerful business skills.

In particular?

Talking to people.

That’s right: actually speaking to someone in a live and interactive manner so that you can listen to what they have to say and actually respond. And this makes ALL the difference.

Why? Think of it this way: when you try and sell something through a sales page (a single page that explains to visitors how great a product is), all you will end up doing is talking at them. You can use every psychological technique in the book to try and make your product sound great, but at the end of the day, this is a one--way conversation.

The same thing is true with email marketing, with advertising, and with just about every other tool in the internet marketer’s tool belt.

And that just doesn’t work all the time.

You might be lucky. You might write the perfect sales pitch that happens to perfectly tap into the way that the visitor is feeling right now. You might answer all their questions, and assuage all of their fears.

But then again, you might misread the situation. You might not realize that this particular customer isn’t that concerned about earning money. Or that they don’t like reading. Or that maybe they don’t like being spoken to that way.

Or maybe they have a question: should they get package A or package B?

Can you guarantee that X?

Because no one is around to answer their questions, they will leave. And you’ll never get the chance to sell to them again in most cases.

Compare this with an ACTUAL conversation. In an actual conversation, you still do your sales spiel. You still dish up all the facts and figures and explain why they should definitely choose your product. But then you open up the floor. NOW you have the opportunity to their questions. Or at least you just try and judge from their responses how they might be feeling.

If they’re into it? Great! You can double down on that strategy and really drive home the sale.

If they’re apprehensive? You back off. You try a different tact. Right there you’ve already kept someone who would otherwise have left.

If they have a specific question? You ask them what that is and then answer it for them.

And suddenly, you can turn a pitch that isn’t going so well around.

This is the power that any great door--to--door salesman has at their disposal. And it’s something that is lost when you use any kind of “ready made” sales pitch.
What’s more, is that it’s something that SO MANY of us have forgotten how to do –– simply because we haven’t had the opportunity or the need.

But what if we regain that skill and bring it right back?

Social messaging apps include the likes of WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Skype, and even things like Instagram DM.

These are not social networks, but rather tools that allow you to instantly contact and message a single person. You can then speak in real--time in a private setting.
A lot of businesses are still ignoring social messaging. Did you know that only 31% of users are using social messaging apps?

This is in spite of the following, extremely impressive stats taken from one popular chatbot site:

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50--80%

Facebook Messenger messages have a click--through rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3--5x higher than Facebook desktop ads

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30--50x less than Facebook ad campaigns

The reason they overlook it is partly because they don’t know how to talk to people any more as we’ve already discussed, and partly because they don’t understand the value. Businesses want to send one message and reach thousands of people, they don’t want to spend time sending multiple messages to a single person.

And granted, if you sell pens then this might NOT be the right strategy for you. But if you sell expensive services, then you may well find that the time you put in is more than worth it.

Because selling in this way can help provide a number of MASSIVE advantages.

For one, it lets you respond to questions and adapt your sales technique in that dynamic way, just as we have already discussed. At the same time, it will also allow you to build trust and engagement with your buyers.

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Introduction

Are you sitting comfortably? Do you have a pen and paper to hand?

Great! Because we’re about to dive into some of the best social media marketing strategies that you never heard of. Any of these techniques can potentially help you to reach a larger audience and get more clicks, shares and likes. In short, this document can at least double the amount of traffic you get from social media.

Ready? Let’s go!

Number 1: Engage

It sounds simple but you’d be surprised how few brands and channels actually do this! If you want to get more people to follow you, then just be a little more active.

Like images by other creators on Instagram, comment on their posts and follow them. If you take a look at a large proportion of Twitter and Instagram accounts with 1,000+ followers, almost all of them also follow 1,000+ people!

The key thing to recognize here is that social media is a communication tool first and foremost. This is what the platforms are designed for, and so it’s a HUGE aspect of your strategy to omit.

Just as important is to engage with the community on your own posts. When someone comments on your picture on Instagram, make sure that you respond to that comment. This is important because it makes that person feel valued. They are now more likely to comment on your next image, and much more likely to hit LIKE.

Over time, that means your images will gain an exponentially larger number of likes, which will mean they show up more in the discover tab and elsewhere. In other words, it is by nurturing that community that you will lead to a huge amount of growth over time.

Number 2: Make Video

On nearly any social media platform, taking time to create video can help you to stand out and gain much more traction.

This isn’t quite so easy. Video requires a certain amount of equipment, knowledge and skill. But that’s precisely why it is crucial for social media success.

Video’s first advantage is that it allows you to communicate more directly with your audience. But not only does it give you a platform where people feel they get to know you, but it also elevates your status thanks to the high production values on display. This is content that you couldn’t have just put together in your Mum’s basement, and it suggests you’re a professional that knows what you’re doing!

High quality video also allows you to convey a huge amount of emotion and feeling – something as simple as adding the right background music can make a video that much more inspiring, epic, or exciting. The result is that people will really remember the videos you post and will be moved to visit your website, to buy your products, or to otherwise investigate your brand further!

If you don’t know how to make amazing video, the good news is that you can fake it. If you sign up for a site that provides free stock video and music, then hire a video editor, you can make amazingly inspiring mash-ups that communicate ideas and feelings and drive sales. Check out the YouTube channel “Shots of Awe” to see how this could potentially play out.

Number 3: Go Live!

When social media marketing began, it was a lot easier. That’s because fewer people were doing it and this made it much easier to stand out.

Now everyone has a social media page and getting noticed is much more difficult. But the new kid on the block is live. Going live on Instagram or Facebook is something that social media platforms want to push and that few creators are getting involved in. So, if you can find the time and energy to give it a go, you might just that your whole audience is notified and you can make a big impact. Plus, they get to talk to you directly – which transforms the way they see you!

Going live is particularly effective because most platforms actually notify followers when someone starts a live feed. This means that you can jolt your audience out of whatever they were doing that day in order to come and hear what you have to say!

There are a huge number of types of content that lend themselves particularly well to live streams. You can create a live feed of something you’re working on, you can create a live feed to share an idea that just came to you, you can create a live feed of an event or a location. This is also a fantastic way to review a product, or to run a Q&A!

Number 4: Network

This is absolutely crucial. You must network if you want to succeed and surprisingly, the best way to do that is by networking in person. Go to events, speak with people and make real connections with people.

This might sound a little confusing, seeing as you are likely an “online” kind of person. But the truth is that most influencers don’t want to hear from you. If you send a message to someone with 100,000 followers, your message will be one of 1,000 that they received that day. I’m not joking!

So how do you stand out? Some blogs will recommend that you make lots of posts on their posts, that you be persistent… but it’s a lot of work with no guaranteed pay off.

But if you MEET the person face-to-face, then they will form a lasting memory of you and you can pitch them your ideas and your brand. And that can be extremely powerful.

NOW they will be much more likely to give you a shoutout, or to share something you posted! So go to networking events if you can, or even hire those influencers if they offer a face-to-face service!

Number 5: Climb the Ladder

So the best growth hack for influencers is to find other big influencers to work with. This way, you not only gain free exposure to their audience, but also endorsement from names that people in that niche already trust. This is MASSSIVE.