Many years ago I asked someone for help. I was completely stuck. I thought there were no options, no ways out.

And then I asked for help. I asked someone who had been in my same situation.

She took one look at my problem, and instantly had 3 or 4 ideas that I hadn’t even thought of.

She had other ideas that I had thought of, but cast them aside before even trying them out. But hearing her say them confirmed in my mind that they were good ideas.

I put her advice to action, and my situation changed. Immediately. I no longer suffered from my problem – and I was now in a place to help others who were.

Now, I know that was really vague, but I left it vague for a reason. I’m sure in your business there are one, two, probably even three or four things that you feel stuck with.

You could probably fill in the blanks of this story with a problem of your own.

Only right now you’re in the ‘stuck’ phase. However, your problem could immediately go away too if you ask the right person for help.

If your problem is something you feel I could help you with, you’re welcome to contact me. I offer private consultations which you can find out more about here (click on the word “here” in that sentence).

If your problem is something that someone else could help you with – start asking those other people!

I once read in a book by Jack Canfield a story where he was talking with his hair stylist who wanted to start her own business.

“I’d do it but I just don’t know how,” she told him.

“Well, why don’t you approach the owner of a successful hair salon, take her out to lunch, and ask her how she did it?” Jack replied.

“You can do that?” she said back, startled.

Yes, you can do that. You can just approach people and ask them for help. Most people who have solved the problem that you now find yourself in are more than glad to offer their assistance.

We’re kind of bred though to not ask questions. Asking questions means we’re “incompetent” or “unknowledgeable”.

But how are we supposed to get the knowledge unless we ask for it first?

What are your thoughts about all of this? Do you have any personal stories about this like I do, or do you completely disagree with everything I just said?

As always, I’d love your input. The comment box is right below this post – just scroll down and fill it out.

Talk soon,

David

It’s about 2 am here in Georgia. I’ve been up thinking about a couple situations I’ve run across lately, and I realized that it’s so crucial that I had to share it with you.

It has to do with a mistake that is costing many business owners literally tens of thousands of dollars.

Actually, so many across the WORLD are making this mistake that I’d even say millions are being wasted on DEAD-END advertising.

This is what I mean…

(By the way everything I’m writing from here on out is not meant to be abrasive – it’s just really true, and really important. I want you to succeed so I feel that it’s my obligation to tell you about it.)

Advertising is for one person, and one person alone: your reader.

It honestly has nothing to do with you, except for the fact that you’re the one putting out the ad. Other than that, your ad/website/etc. is for your reader.

Sometimes this means setting your ego aside (I know as well as anyone that this isn’t always the easiest thing in the world).

Sometimes, you’re so in line with your target market that you could practically write to yourself and it’ll do just fine.

Most of the time though, your target market isn’t you. You’re someone who’s already solved a problem that they have. You’re providing the solution. You’re the expert.

So you’re writing to people with a PROBLEM. And you need to always remember that.

Yeah, you may have won 10 awards. Yeah, you may have 17 degrees and 22 certifications…

But the bottom line is, someone is going to call an ad that speaks directly to them over an ad that talks about how many degrees someone has.

Let’s stop and be brutally honest for a second:

The last time you sat down to write copy, choose a design for your website, or anything else relating to marketing -

Did you think, “What would my target market want to see?”

or did you think, “What do I prefer?”

It’s okay if you asked yourself the second question – but asking yourself the first question is what makes sales.

Dale Carnegie said it beautifully.

He said that he loves strawberry shortcake – but when he goes fishing he doesn’t put it on the line. He puts what the fish like.

That’s the golden rule of marketing. If you’re breaking it – now’s the perfect time to head in a new direction. I have literally fought with clients for hours to get them to see this when they couldn’t understand why I wrote copy in the way that I did.

And that also goes for colors, fonts, graphics – anything! It all has to be for your reader – not for you (unless the two of you happen to have the same aesthetic).

But I’m so passionate about getting people results that I’d rather my client hate me and make a ton of money then like me because I wrote it the way they wanted and have the ad get zero response.

Maybe that’s not the healthiest mindset – but it’s how I feel.

Luckily, 99% of the time I don’t have this conflict, but lately it’s been popping up in my life like those gofers in the arcade game where you whack them on the head.

What do you think?

Anyway, don’t make this mistake! Focus on who you’re writing to, and you’re already ahead of the curve.

Till next time,

David

Got an AWESOME interview for ya.

My good friend and business partner Bedros Keuilian agreed to spill the beans on how he achieved such massive success. This interview is not only full of awesome advice, but inspiring too, as you learn how Bedros went from living in a tiny, run-down house, to living in a giant property in a really nice section of Southern California.

Just click below to get started!

Interview with Bedros Keuilian

If you have trouble with the player, right click “Download” and select “Save Target As”

Talk soon,

David

p.s. If you enjoy the interview leave Bedros a comment about it

I hope you are having an awesome day/night/morning/whenever it is you’re reading this.

I have a very special interview for you with my very own brother, Steve Hochman, who has personally been a mentor to me both in business and in life.

Steve went from living on the hardwood floor of his ex-girlfriend’s mother’s floor, to now earning close to 7 figures a year (and without a doubt he’s hitting 7 figures this year).

And the cool thing is he constantly helps personal trainers and boot camp owners skyrocket their incomes to live the incredible life that he now does.

Anyway, click play below to get started. Steve reveals some CRAZY-GOOD marketing/copywriting tips that you can instantly apply to your own business.

Oh, and if the audio seems to skip at places, it’s because our connection cut out a couple times, but we always picked back up where we left off.

(By the way – the first 2:30 is me and Steve laughing and goofing off. So if you just want the pure content, skip ahead to 2:30)

Also – in the beginning we talked about special ed for a second. Steve really was in special ed all through school, so we’re not two jerks picking on people who were born with mental deficiencies!

Actually, that’s part of why Steve’s story is so cool because he was a kid who no one thought would succeed, yet he didn’t listen to a word of anyone, took massive success by the reins, and now lives an awesome life with his wife and two daughters out in California.

Here’s the interview. Enjoy

To learn more about Steve Hochman, and pick up some incredible marketing tips, click this link: Fitness Marketing.

Talk soon,

David

A big part of success comes from how good you can do what you do. I have a whole stack of copywriting and marketing books, videos, and audio files dedicated to helping me become the best copywriter and marketer I possibly can.

But just as important as your skill set is your mindset, and how you feel.

I have another stack of books dedicated to this subject: success.

Success is mental, physical, spiritual, emotional. It’s how you think and feel and breathe.

Without realizing it, when we’re filled with self-defeating thoughts and feelings, we block opportunities. We act in ways that attract people and situations who don’t resonate with success. We create more suffering in our lives.

That’s why today I want to help you overcome your self-defeating thoughts. Just about all of us have them.

So the question is… How do you deal with them?

So many self-help books talk about affirmations. In case you’re not familiar with that word, affirmations are when you tell yourself you already are what you want to be. The goal of them is to “re-program” your mind so you finally believe that you are powerful, confident, successful, and in turn, you become all of these characteristics.

But you know what? For the longest time they didn’t work for me one bit

And in fact, they don’t work for a lot of people I’ve spoken with. For some, they work miracles, but for a lot of us there’s just something missing from them…

That’s because a lot of these books are missing the most important step in giving yourself affirmations.

Now, obviously these books help a tremendous amount of people, including myself. So I’m not ragging on them. I’m just speaking for us individuals who want affirmations to work, but for some reason they simply don’t.

See, for years I would try affirmations, and they wouldn’t change the way I felt. I thought something was wrong with me, so I tried harder. And harder. And harder. I filled notebooks with statements like, “I am successful” and constantly walked around with similar thoughts in my head.

But still, no dice.

That is… Until finally I accidentally came across a way to make them work. Once I used this method I truly believed every affirmation I spoke out loud, or wrote down in my journal.

That important step is dealing with what you feel right now

If you feel really crummy, just like nothing is going right for you, or that you don’t deserve success, or any number of other self-defeating thoughts, there’s a good chance that saying affirmations to yourself will feel like trudging barefoot up Mt. Everest.

When you strongly feel negative thoughts and feelings, your whole body just resists affirmations.

So this is what I’ve found to work for me to clear away that resistance.

I call it the “Belief Reversal System”:

The first step is I let myself feel crummy.

I take out a pen and paper, or sit at my computer, and write about how I feel. I don’t do it poetically or anything, I just sit down and write:

“I feel worthless. I feel like a bad person. I feel like I don’t deserve success.”

I’ll do that for every feeling I have floating around inside of me.

What this does:

This gives your feelings the one thing they truly need: recognition and space. See, when you try to just force affirmations into your head, you’re pushing away these feelings you have, and they don’t like that.

They resist the affirmations, which is why they never work.

But if you recognize these feelings, and give yourself space to experience them, they go away. Or they go away enough so that you can take in some positive affirmations.

Then you start the affirmations

After you’ve dealt with your negative feelings, that’s when you take out your pen and write about yourself how you want to be. Or you say it out loud, or in your head – whatever way is right for you.

I like to keep it simple. I’ll write things like:

“Inspiring ideas constantly flow through me. Every day I have more and more ideas about how to dramatically grow my business, and I immediately put them to action. My relationships are full of love. I constantly laugh and enjoy life to the fullest”

I just write whatever feels good.

And you know what? So far a good number of them have come true.

Talk to you later,

David

p.s. If you have any questions about this, or advice about how you give yourself affirmations, leave them below in a comment.

You never know who else has the same question you have, or whose day could be completely turned around by your advice

When a lot of us hear the word “meditation” we think of monks sitting cross-legged with their hands in some weird shape, saying the word “ohmmmmm….” for hours and hours.

Well, that’s their version of meditation – but it doesn’t have to be yours.

For some, meditation is cooking, playing music, taking a walk. It’s anything you do that makes you forget your stresses, and allows you to find some inner-peace, and let your imagination loose.

To becoming successful, meditation is as important as breathing.

And here’s why: you actually have a mechanism inside of your mind that accomplishes all of the goals you give it. In fact, your life right now is a collection of accomplished goals that you gave your mind to accomplish, most likely without knowing it.

For instance, for years I put myself in situations where I had no money because I believed money was bad. So I gave myself the goal of “put me in situations where I am destitute.” I did that through the images, feelings, and thoughts I had when money came up in a conversation, or when I thought about money. And you know what? I became great at accomplishing that goal.

But then I tried something different…

I became aware of my thoughts about money and success, and I tried to “re-program” them. And that is where meditation came in. For me, meditation is playing guitar, or taking a walk in nature. When I do these things, I feel relaxed, calm, and I imagine my life the way I want it to be. I imagine every single detail of it, including how the hardwood floors of my million dollar home will feel against my heels.

Often music is an extremely powerful gateway into meditation. The right song can trigger such a peaceful, meditative state. That’s why I’ve compiled some of my favorite tracks to meditate with.

Each track is one-minute long, so you can have “one-minute power meditation” sessions

Here’s how you use these tracks – press play, close your eyes, and imagine your life the way you want it to be. Feel how it would feel to be successful, to have no more money worries, to have unlimited time for the people, places, and events you love most. The more detail you imagine, the faster it will happen. I know this from experience.

Jazz:

Experiment:

Venture Out:

Old Soul:

To your success,

David

p.s. I created these tracks myself Enjoy.