Worried About Your Financial Success

Are you worried about your financial success? Given the continuing financial state of the world, you most likely are quite concerned about the financial well being of your family, business, career and the dreams that you hold for a hopefully brighter future.

Let me ask you a question… Do you have a millionaire mindset? Sure, everyone wishes that fate or lady luck would some how make them one. That however is not what I’m asking. What I really want you to be clear about is whether or not you are thinking like a million dollar business owner or professional?

The key point that I want to make is that you have to start thinking like a millionaire and start conducting business as if you already were a millionaire… in order to eventually come one. I’m not referring to having a fake it till you make it. What I am talking about is the action of literally preparing yourself for the future that you say that you want. If you’re not truly ready to handle this degree of success, you could be in for some troubling times down the road.

I want you to honestly think about this with a serious perspective. How many times have you heard over the years about high profile actors, sports stars, recording artists, business people and even lottery winners that at one time had immense fortunes… Only to wind up broke, destitute and homeless years later. In many cases, their lives even met with tragic ends.

While it is critically important to know what you want for your life, as well as how you are going to get it… It is equally critical that you have a vision and plan for what you are going to do when success does come. With your financial success in mind, here are a few tips for developing an appropriate mindset when it comes to financial success:

Define “Rich”. Get crystal clear about what being rich means to you. What does it look like? What does it feel like? Are you actually rich in other ways in addition to potential monetary wealth? How do you then balance them?

Learn Wealth. Who you are hanging out with? Who are you getting financial advice from? Is your family wealthy? How about your friends? Are you honestly listening to traditional financial advisors and bankers? The truth is that wealthy people learn from other wealthy people. Start learning from the people who are further down the road that you are traveling in pursuit of success. Not only do they know how to achieve success, they also know the pitfalls to avoid.

Create A Wealth Posture. One of the important keys to building true wealth is that of creating the right growth posture. The is absolutely no substitute for the ability to work from a position of strength, for it is posture the allows your to leverage your finances, eliminate debt and accrue real wealth.

Think Bigger. Virtually everyone that has ever created meaningful wealth has had to break out of their comfort zone and start thinking bigger, dreaming bigger and living bigger… While concurrently taking on bigger risk than ever before. You’ll need to think bigger about yourself, your talents and abilities too.

Balance Your Life. Adjust your mindset with the knowledge that a successful life is much more than a robust balance sheet. Your finances and potential wealth are but one arena of your life. Don’t sacrifice the other significant aspects of your life all for the pursuit of wealth. Of what real “value” is all your money worth if you don’t have the good health required to enjoy it? And to what end are all your efforts, if you have no one in your life to enjoy it with?

Share Your Wealth. One of the hallmark qualities of those who have earned wealth is that of philanthropy. Now that you have invested in yourself, take time to invest in others and help them to find success. Find someone that can you mentor, then lift them high on your shoulders and help celebrate their success!

In the end, life all comes down to the choices you’ve made. When it comes to financial success… if you make the right choice… what’s to worry?

Copyright © 2012 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.

Reevaluating Your Social Media Investment

In recent years, the world has become increasingly enamored with the realm of Social Media. There are literally hundreds of differently themed social media websites that are beckoning for your attention, as well in the investment of your time, energy and resource capital to hopefully cash in on the next great social media phenomenon.

Following Facebook’s recent IPO, the Wall Street Journal reported that General Motors was pulling the plug on its Facebook advertising to the tune of 10 millions dollars due to a lack of consumer response. For which the ten million question then becomes… Are you actually getting a measurable return on your investment in social media?

If you are to believe all of the social media hype, anybody who is anybody is intently immersed in the culture of Facebook, Twitter and Linked In. Then, there is the newest and supposedly hottest social media platform yet… “Pinterest” which is touted to drive more traffic to your business than its more established predecessors. But, are these pillars of social media actually generating real customers and consistent sales revenue for your business?

If they aren’t, then like GM, maybe you too should be reevaluating your investment in social media marketing. Here’s a tip for you… don’t get caught up in the frenzy surrounding social media. Rather, start exercising due diligence in evaluating its actual potential to assist with growing your business.

While there are some glamorous and seductive success stories out there -- don’t allow them to become the alluring sirens that sink your efforts on the all too often barren rocks of internet marketing. In this regard, here are some points that you may want to carefully consider about your social media exposure:

First and foremost… there are many categories of business for which the internet holds no real marketing value what-so-ever.

If your business endeavor is one that could legitimately benefit from the world wide web… you must still keep you wits about you and have a sound perspective about your internet marketing, what you expect to accomplish… and “why”.

Remember that an internet search will ultimately yield millions of results, yet only the top 10 organic search results will appear as Page 1 listings. The odds of ever being… let alone staying listed on page one are about on par with winning the Power Ball Lottery.

There is an age old axiom in business which states that "you shouldn’t confuse activity with results". Yet, thousands and thousands of businesses are doing exactly that with regard to their internet presence. Simply consider the facts:

You could spend the money and do all of the work that it will take to eventually have 10,000 or more followers on Twitter or 10,000 plus fans on Facebook… yet the question lingers loudly… to what end?

For the most part… it’s nothing more than a popularity contest. It’s a proven fact that there are real business people who have over 1,000,000 fans on Facebook and have yet to see the first penny of sales revenue from their efforts.

Here’s the ultimate distinction that needs to be crystal clear to you… fans and followers are not and never will be “qualified leads”! Let me repeat this again because it is critically important… your fans and followers are not qualified leads who have a bonafide interest… let alone real “need”… for your product or service.

As well… there are many businesses that have invested $10,000…$20,000 and more to build their website, do extensive search engine optimization and promotion that is necessary in order to obtain a #1 Google ranking… Only to learn the hard lesson that a #1 ranking does not in any way translate into actual customers, a revenue stream or a guarantee for internet marketing success.

At the end of the business day, you want real “customers”… not fans! This requires a comprehensive understanding of exactly what distribution channels, marketing strategies and sales tactics are the winning combination for your business and the results that you want to achieve.

And for that… you may need a little help.

Copyright © 2012 Developing Forward | Thomas H. Swank, CBC | All Rights Reserved.