Meta Launches Threads: Here Is What You Need To Know
Mark Zuckerberg did it again. Meta or Facebook as I still call the company just launched a new app called Threads. It is obviously a direct competitor of Twitter. So what is all of the buzz about, and is it really a great app? I have been playing around with the app over the last 48 hours, so let me share my analysis.
So What Is Threads
Threads is really a text based sharing app that is connected to Instagram. You can share pictures and videos as well. Posts can be up to 500 characters in length, and videos can be up to 5 minutes in length. I do like the video length because the latest craze of short form video of less than 60 seconds is tough to get a clear message across. I like the ability of being able to post a video between one to two minutes in length.
What Have I Seen So Far
I like the conversations. Even though the app is in its early stage, having a longer text based conversation and being able to add a pictures or a video is great. It has been a very positive experience so far. I have started to see some spam post replies already, and hopefully Meta will tackle that. With it being in its early phase, you can build and audience quickly and even talk to celebrities, athletes and other people you might be following on other apps.
How Do I Get The App
The app will be in your app store, and make sure to double check the logo (picture posted on this post), so all you have to do is download the app. Once downloaded, it will then ask you to sign in with Instagram, and you want to make sure you do that. The Threads app will also ask you if you want to bring over your profile information. You should say yes, and let it be easy!
Should I Use The App
As I always say to all of you, you should try out a new app. It is about testing and learning things. If you are running a business, it is important to get into an app early on. You can build up a solid following by doing so. If you are not a business and someone who enjoys social media, give it a try.
I am excited to see how Threads will evolve and what will come next. Contact me here at https://joewoo.com/contact/ and send me your questions. You can always go to Meta and check out any new info on Theads by going here https://www.meta.com/
With love…..
READ MOREStart Posting Content Now
Stopped in the bathroom four times on the way to the event. Threw up twice. Questioned myself as to was I worthy to speak in front of people. Almost cancelled the event – I literally picked up the phone twice and called the school principal.Missed the exit and several turns – so I lost 25 minutes of prep time.Started sweating a ton!!! I didn’t raise my arms too much to show the sweaty arm pits!Lessons Learned From 2022
Lessons Learned From 2022
Hello everyone and Happy December 31, 2022! It is time to say goodbye to a wild ride of a year in 2022! I know everyone is getting ready to celebrate with friends and family to ring in 2023 and even plan goals for the new year. As I always do, I like to write about lessons learned in the past year and share them with all of you in hopes that you will learn something and perhaps even be inspired to dream big and be amazing in 2023
All In
This theme is a theme that you will see dominate everything around me and everything I do moving forward. I am living and breathing it. I truly believe to get what you want out of life and succeed; you must be “all in” on everything. You must go all in. Many people are playing life by taking short cuts or living in fear, or even trying to hack their way to success. It’s funny that “all in” was sitting in front of me all this time. It is the name of our mortgage company we created. But in reality, “all in” is a way of life we all should strive to be at. “All in” requires hard work, discipline, dedication, overcoming all fears, never giving up, and playing life full out. You must put in the hard work every day. That requires discipline and dedication, and it requires overcoming your fears, never giving up so you can play full out. See what I just did there? Re-read the last three sentences. That is what it takes to be successful. That is the formula, and it is not some secret. Just put in the damn work! You got this
.Get It Done!
I could be more colorful in how I say that, but this is another theme I will be embracing. Get sh*t done! That’s better! We procrastinate, we wait until the last minute, we forgot, and we just do not want to do things. Whatever the reason holding us back, be it fear, laziness, perfectionism, arrogance, tired, pissed off, or whatever other reason, it does not matter. We need to get things done. When I feel any of those ways, I say the phrase “get it done” about 30 times. It rewires your mindset and puts you in a better state. When I have to work on a tough deal, I recite “get it done” many times. One past deal that was tough, I probably said “get it done” over 1,000 times. It put me in a better frame of mind, and got me through the tough time. We all have so many things we could be doing, getting in shape, repairing a relationship, starting a business, or fixing up your house. Whatever it is, just “get it done.” It won’t be perfect, it might not be pretty, but it will get done. After interviewing so many successful people, I have found that when they start something, they get it done. The successful entrepreneurs are like this way. They start and then tweak it along the way, knowing that it is a work in progress. I see many of you starting businesses and blowing money on top equipment or fancy furniture when you do not even have your doors open or clients coming in! Remember, its progress, then test and learn, tweak and keep going. Get it done!
Give Without Expectation Of A Return (Carefully Watch Your Mindset Here)
Years ago, I wrote an article about not being transactional, meaning, we as humans give something, and then we expect to get the same in return. I thought I was good about not worrying about getting something in return when I gave training or something of value to people. At times, I did care and wondered why someone would not return the favor. I discovered that I was living in the scarcity mindset, meaning that I felt if I gave so much more, I should get something back, even if it was a little. For example, I did a ton of social media training this past year. I would spend hours and hours with people. I got frustrated when I felt I tipped the scale of value and then I would not get a lead for a mortgage client or coaching client sent my way.
Believe it or not, when you think that way, you become transactional and un-authentic. It will show up in how you deliver your value. Trust me. What did I do? I went in with being authentic, the guy that wants to help see other people win. I trained more people than ever this past year on social media ads. I gave from the heart, and I never went in thinking I would get a lead or leads, or new business. I zeroed out my expectations. And guess what? The leads and new business started flowing. I received calls from people who said this person sent them to me. It was like magic. It was a beautiful thing. Things flowed and it felt right.
Some of you might say, well that is crazy, why spend so much time and not get anything. I will tell you, you will get a ton out of helping people. You will be doing one of our greatest things as a human. Deep down, we want to contribute and give in this world to make it better. You will get an amazing feeling when you see someone win or achieve success from you helping them out. And I guarantee you, that people remember that and will eventually send people your way. And its all because you were authentic and people resonated with you. Then now want to give back because you made them feel wonderful.
Stop Crapping On Other People
This whole notion where people are arguing with people, even screaming at people, and getting in their faces when they disagree with someone is childish behavior. It is like its your job to blast someone or cut them down with your voice when you disagree with what they say or even do. Just stop it. You look stupid. Now, of course, if you must defend yourself, then that is a whole different ballgame, especially if someone is coming at you or making strong accusations. The fact that people are chasing people down to yell at them is disgusting. It is a total reflection on you. We need to do more listening, real listening. We need to stop and think about our actions and how they impact other people. Just because someone has a different viewpoint or does something you do not like does not mean you need to scream at them. Just because someone cut you off in traffic and now you are “butt hurt” because of it does not mean you need to follow them, tailgate them, and then follow them to their place of destination and go after them. There is this neat thing where you can walk away from the situation, you actually do have the freedom to walk away. We need to do more walking away and chilling out. Period.
Hire Mentors And Coaches
Every coach needs a coach. We all need that perspective of looking outside in. I have several mentors and coaches who help me; some are paid, and some are free. For example, I have a social media mentor who I hired that spends $1,000,000 a year on social media ads. Why not learn from someone who is doing the things that you want to do. When I started talking to mentors and coaches, I saw my growth grow exponentially, and the right way. I have five mentors and coaches, all for different areas in my life. For example, I have a sales coach to help me get better at sales. Sales was an area I always struggled with. When I worked at credit card companies as a phone rep, we used to have to sell those garbage products to customers. I hated that. It didn’t feel right to me, and I got turned off with sales. I had to re-wire my mindset on sales. I have taken that negative experience and turned my sales game into a strength. Always be learning!
Technology – Stay On Top Of Trends
One thing I learned is that if you are first or at the beginning of something, you have a great chance of standing out. Many of you dislike social media and look at it as a bad thing. Like it or not, social media has eliminated the middle man and created a level playing field for everyone to grow a business or create something unique. I used to always be late to the party for new technology. Now, I get in when it happens and I get on a new social media platform, or I experiment with new technology right away so I can learn how it can benefit clients and partners.
I do believe technology is going to evolve so fast over the next three years that many people are going to get left behind. For example, ChatGPT is huge and it is going to chance the way we do business. You must stay on top of new technologies and implement them as you see fit. Remember, progress, not perfection. Read the news, Google new technologies and trends, and read up on it. Go talk to the companies that are creating this stuff and learn from them. By doing these things, is how I grew my social media presence by 30% this past year.
Stop Worrying About Other People Judging You
This one right here is the single most reason why many of you have not moved forward in where you want to go or what you want to do. Over the past year, I have coached so many people on putting video out or even audio, and many have not even begun that journey. You have to put yourself out there to get the success you want. There is no other way. I got over worrying about what other people thought years ago. It took a long time to get out of that habit, but it is so freeing to not care what other people say. I do not even get mad or stressed when I hear someone talk crap about me. Sure, once in a while something might sting, but 99% of the time, I laugh at the stupidity of it. When you level up and you put yourself out there, more criticism is coming your way. This past year, I went on my “all in” philosophy and trust me, when I put content out there, the haters came at me. You must realize that the people who criticize and hate on you are not really making it about you. It is a reflection of their lives and the feelings they have about themselves. Use me as an example of you want. I went through it and I am doing amazing. I can assure you that on the other side of that worrying is a level you only dream about and how freeing it is. So go all in and get it done!
Circle Of Friends
I have talked about this one before, but it is so true today. There is still so much negativity and bashing of people going on out there, that I believe many people have made it their full-time job to just go after people. You must eliminate the negative people around you. They will drag you down. I want to help them and I do try, but if they are stuck in their negative energy, it is on them. You cannot change people! You must move past the negative people. They will drag you down and down. If you are running a business, surround yourself with big time successful people. In my circle now, I have a mentor that runs several businesses and has created millions of dollars in wealth not just for himself but for others to have more freedom. If you surround yourself with people who have been there done that and are truly authentic, you will grow in that direction. Who you spend time with is who you become. Get better quality people around you.
Yours truly,
Joseph “JoeWoo” Rychalsky
READ MOREKnow Your Lanes
I know I do two things well, mortgage loans and career/life strategy.
That statement is not to be braggadocios or cocky. It is confidence in where I am going in my destination and knowing the route ahead. It took a long time to get to that point, to have the complete confidence and belief in myself.
We are all going to be in multiple lanes and highways in our lifetime. We are going to have to get off at exit ramps and shift and pivot in our lives. The problem is that many of you are on an eight-lane highway right now, constantly shifting in and out of lanes, and not sure where you are going or what you are doing. You do not see the road hazards ahead. There isn’t really a plan.
Want proof. We can look to the labor market right now. The Labor Department last Tuesday said that more than 4.5 million people voluntarily left their jobs in November. That is the most in two decades. The turnover is a result of people seeking better opportunities. That is a huge amount of employee dissatisfaction going on. The problem is that the dissatisfaction will continue even after people get new opportunities and raises. Why? The dissatisfaction was there prior to Covid and because most people are in the wrong careers. People are blaming Covid for their dissatisfaction. They are on a highway and no horizon in sight.
I didn’t wake up one day and say I am going to be in mortgages and help people with their career and lives. I was in customer service, IT, non-profit, artificial intelligence/automation, and multimedia. Many of the industries I was in did a fair amount of job elimination and company consolidation. Working in Delaware in the late 1990s and early 2002s taught me something. Delaware was the credit card capital in those times, and companies were buying companies every year. I was often out of a job before I knew it. I wanted to figure out how to be proactive and be two steps ahead of where I was at. I started reading the signs and shifting lanes. I became obsessed with figuring this out. I watched the news about my industry, I talked to professional experts in the industry. Becoming obsessed did two things, I became an expert at my job, and I could anticipate as best I could what I believe what would happen. Today, I am obsessed with helping people get into the home of their dreams. I am obsessed with helping people navigate their careers.
I realized one other thing years ago, the obsession I had was helping people. It was always there from the time I created a lemonade stand at age 5, to my paper route and putting the paper in the best place for the customer. That obsession for me meant I could transition to any industry where people are helped with something. That was the horizon up the road for me, so that meant I was in the driver’s seat now and could change lanes and navigate the obstacles.
Here is what you must do to get to that point:
- You must be obsessed with what you do. None of this I enjoy my job, or I love what I do. Obsessed!!! If you can’t get out of bed for your work, then you must change. Is it every really going to get better?
- Learn new skill sets. You have to spend money on yourself to do that. You have in invest in yourself and most people do not.
- There is no BUT! I hear people all the time say, “well, if I go try this, but then.” “My pay is good but my job sucks.” You can’t have BUTs. They are excuses for justifying things.
- Research and understand everything about your industry. Read the news sites, talk to people, learn all you can so you can be proactive and know what is going on. That is obsession. You will be able to make better decisions and choices all while feeling much more confident.
- Most of you are afraid to make changes because of what people will say. Remember, no matter what, you will always be judged and talked about by people. Trust me. When you have success, that noise level goes up. Way up. Tune other people’s BS and negative comments out and focus on yourself.
The road to success and a great life is paved with all kinds of obstacles, lane shifts, and whatever else life throws at you. You have the choice to handle it, understand your lanes, and be in the driver’s seat. It’s your choice.
READ MORE12 Lessons Learned For 2022
Happy New Year!!! Here are 12 lessons learned from 2021. I wish you all the success you earn in 2022!
Be Yourself – Stop putting on the façade. The world needs more real and authentic people. You need to develop the courage to speak your truth and take more risks. It starts with putting yourself in challenging situations. You will get used to them. Throw yourself into the fire! You will be amazed at what happens. Many people’s social media lives are so far from the truth of their real life. It is sad to see. People are lying to themselves about the truth. What I put on social media is me. 100 percent me. No facades. No BS. That is my authentic self. I improve myself every day but it is still 100 percent me out there! Take one step at a time and put yourself out there every day. Eventually you will see it!
Get Shit Done– Don’t wait long on others or even procrastinate yourself. If you are waiting on people, continue to follow up. If you know they are not going to get it done, then you need to shift and find someone else or get it done yourself. Other people are not always coming to your rescue or going to help. You have to control getting the things done. The successful people are the ones that go get things done no matter what is happening. They always find a way. The hard stuff is what people avoid. You will make tons of excuses as to why you haven’t improved yourself and justify it. You must put in the hard work. There are parts of your job/career that you will never enjoy. The days you do not want to get out of bed are the days that you need to the most. The people that get the hard things done are the ones succeeding. You must put in the work. No shortcuts! All shortcuts will eventually come back to bite you. You can only scotch tape a problem for so long. Just go out and take one thing and get it done. Then go after the next thing. Build that momentum.
Copy Others – When you see someone successful, learn from them and copy what they are doing. Let me explain. For this year, I focused on tuning at the noise of other people. I found someone succeeding wildly at that. I watched what he did. I read his techniques and then copied them into my wheelhouse. Some stuff works, some stuff does not. Evolve it into your domain. There are many people succeeding at things. Google or YouTube it. It’s there for the taking. There is nothing wrong with copying. There really isn’t much new stuff out there either. Much of what we learn is recycled. Its not new. Find mentors or successful people who you admire and study the hell out of them and how they do things. Put that to use and tweak it in your own life.
Find A Mentor Several Steps Ahead Of You – In the same spirit of copying, find someone who is three to four steps ahead of you and where you want to be. Finding someone several steps ahead of you will help you learn and achieve your goals faster. You are not trying to take shortcuts but learning from someone who has been there and done that. Reach out to them and see if they are willing to talk and be a mentor. In some cases, you might have to pay. Don’t be cheap. Take them out to lunch or dinner and PAY!!! Don’t be cheap. Google or YouTube someone. It doesn’t have to be a big name person either. Everyone is so infatuated with the big names like Gary Vaynerchuk, Grant Cardone, etc. Find someone local or regional. You will be surprised at what you find.
Schedule Everything – This is where I have improved but need more improvement in. In today’s age, you really need to schedule everything. Use Google calendar or Outlook. Its easy and works well. Or if you are old school like me, I still use a planner book combined with an online schedule. Its all right in front of me. Be in the driver’s seat of your schedule. So many of you are zombies and going from task to task or event to event, and you feel like crap all the time. When people want to meet with me about a produce or service, I give them options. And, if I get into the meeting and it is not serving me or I don’t feel it, I cut the meeting off. I know that sounds harsh, but I would rather be honest and not waste time. We all have the same hours in a day, and the successful people are in command of their schedule. Even when problems or a crisis hits, they are ready. It takes effort to type and write down your schedule and I hate writing it all down. It serves me well though because I know what is always going on. Once you are in command of your days, you will see a big difference. You will have more energy, more confidence, and when it comes time to deal with problems, you will be ready.
I Must Do Versus I Have To – I catch myself periodically saying “I have to do this or that.” You don’t have to do anything. When you MUST do something, the game changes. Must makes you get things done. It’s all in your language pattern. Think about this for a minute. If you run a business, what is better to say, I have to succeed for my clients or I must succeed for them. I must succeed is much more confident. Have to, should of, could of, would of is not in my vocabulary. It takes practice with changing your language pattern. A great deal of practice. It took me a few years and I am still learning to catch myself with using not confident language. When you can master that, it’s a whole different world.
FOCUS – Stop Focusing Energy On Other’s Garbage – I cannot tell you how many times I look at social media even up to today, and see more and more of people’s opinions on the pandemic, vaxers versus non vaxers, mask wearers versus non mask wearers. Trump versus Biden. Democrats versus Republicans. We all know our political system is completely broken. Yet we choose to complain all day long about this or that. Look, I am going to love people no matter what and no matter what their beliefs are. If you try and take me down, then its game on! There is a difference there. You must stop focusing on all the negative crap people are putting out there. Social media is showing you this crap because you comment on it, you share it, and you want to see it, whether you like it or not. For once, shut your mouth! You don’t always have to comment and go at it with someone for hours. Take that three hours of commenting on a post and learn a new trait. The reason you do all of that is deep down, you have so many insecurities about yourself. Trust me, I was there. I used to comment and go at it with people online a great deal. I stopped. When I did that, I had more time, I felt better, and things really changed for the better for me. You will never succeed when you spend so much of your time on the negativity and garbage out there.
Success Does Not Come Easy – When you see the hype lifestyles out there, it looks awesome doesn’t it? What you don’t see is the countless hours and hours spent of someone putting the hard work in. Instead of paying attention to all the fancy cars, watches, houses someone has, look further, and see what it took for someone to get there. I’m not saying that the fancy stuff is the mark for success, but people are so captivated by the lifestyle that you forget what it took to get there. Many people want to get to that level so quick, they do shady stuff or take the shortcut, or try to buy the success. I see people buying programs out there and complaining that its not working. The scary thing is when I asked a guy what he did, he had minimal effort. You can’t achieve your dreams without suffering, struggling, failing, and falling on your face. You get back up and go at it again. When you feel you are ready to give up, that is when you must push harder. That is the test of who wants it versus who is just wanting to get by and struggle in life.
Clarity/Exactness – You must get 100 percent clear on what you want to do and who you are. I feel like the word clarity is being overused today, so I like the word Exactness better!!! If you are 99.99% there, it doesn’t matter. You need to be 100 percent exact. Not perfect, exact. I was working with someone a few weeks ago and they told me they wanted to get healthy in 2022. I asked them what specifically does that mean? They could not answer me. They were stuck. You need to drill down and find out what you want. If healthy is feeling better or having more energy, then you need to get to that level. Many people have no clue what they want their life to look like. Sure, life throws curveballs and things change but many people are just bouncing around right now. You need to write down what you want and be exact with it. If you want to lose 21 pounds, then put that down as a goal. If you want to make $138,900 this year, write it down like that. Reverse engineer the goal and create the action items you need to get there.
Be Obsessed! – In your career, you must be obsessed with your line of work. I call it a healthy obsession. It goes beyond liking, loving, and being passionate about what you do. Many people love what they do and that is unfortunately not enough. I love basketball but it is not my obsession. That is where so many people get hung up and why so many of you are unhappy right now. You enjoy or love what you do but it’s not your obsession. Being obsessed gets you out of bed every day when the weather is bad, or you don’t feel like doing things. Even when you are down or you have had a bad stretch of things not going your way, you will always get back up. Michael Jordan is the perfect example of this. He was obsessed about being the best basketball player he could be. Of course, his career and life prove that. You must get that way. I am obsessed with helping people in financing their home with a mortgage loan. I am obsessed with coaching people and giving them the tools for them to get out of depression or to change their course in life. If you can honestly say you are not obsessed with what you are doing right now, then you need to change it. You will never truly be fulfilled and always wondering why instead of living your best life.
100 Percent Accountability – Right now, so many of you are blaming everybody and everything for where your life is at. Excuse making seems like it’s a full time job. You blame the weather, the economy, the stock market, the CEO’s, the politics, Trump, Biden, heck…I even heard someone say the other day that God gave them a bad card in life to suffer. WTF! Some of you are so resentful right now that you bask in the pity party. It is your choice to be and act that way. We all have problems; we all have issues. Some of us have more difficult issues than others. I caught myself making a ton of excuses. I learned to change my language and be more accountable. We are human, and its easy to blame someone other than to look in the mirror and own it. We can justify why we are where we are. Once you get 100 percent accountable and own up and say I am where I am because of my choices, you can start changing things. You must solve that mentality first before you can truly move forward. I have seen and learned from people who have lived in hell holes and even been abused so bad you can’t even grasp it. Yet, they are out there winning. They are out there helping others. Why? Because they became 100 percent accountable and did not make excuses.
Don’t Care What Others Think! – If there is one takeaway for you, this is it! This year especially, I learned to what I use as my phrase, “I don’t give a F what people think!” It is more colorful when I say it to myself. Now, I love feedback from people, especially mentors and peers. What I am referring to is the family, friends, and followers you have. As I have put myself out there fully, especially on social media, the negative nellies are out in full force. At first, it sucked. I felt like I was doing something wrong and even questioned myself. I changed my mindset to not care and go further to see what would happen. When I did that, it was painful, I lost some friends, and stopped talking to some people. After a while it became normal. I feel happier. I sleep better. I am hitting and crushing goals. You are always going to be judged by people. The talk behind your back is always always going to be there. Get used to it. It is a part of life. The sooner you can understand that people are always going to judge and talk shit about you, you will feel so much better and free! We all must chart our own course, and to do that, you must stop worrying about what others think and say of you. Period!
READ MOREAn Awakening
I am going to give all of you some in your face advice and inspiration you need…. sit back and hold on. The University of Chicago did a poll last year and found that Americans are the unhappiest they have been in nearly 50 years. Here is the scary thing. That poll was done before the Corona virus outbreak!
Before I dig in, Happy New Year. I wish all of you health, wealth, and happiness in 2021.
I believe 2020 was an awakening for the human race on this planet. But I do not think many of you awoke. You are still playing the victim role. You are still blaming everyone for your circumstances. You are complaining about every little freaking thing. You are still sleeping in the average life and not leveling up to be the best you can be.
I felt like I was Carl the janitor in the movie, The Breakfast Club, when he said “I’ve learned a couple of things. I look through your letters. I look through your lockers. I listen to your conversations, you don’t know that but I do.” I silently watched many of you on social media this year.
My news feed was painful. Really painful. It was a shit show. Many of you spent a good majority of the year trying to figure out Corona Virus conspiracy theories. And when the US Presidential Election came, suddenly there was this greatest fraud in the history of the face of the earth. Now, I am not doubting that some funny things went on. Fraud happens. People do bad things. But I did not let the Corona Virus, or the US Election, or whatever else was thrown my way define me. I defined me in 2020.
Our year started out with several significant medial emergencies in the family. The Corona Virus impacted us personally as well. I got knocked down at least 20 times over this year. I got back up every single time. Yet, I had the best year financially for me since 2015 when I left Corporate America with a nice six figure salary. I did phenomenal in the mortgage business this year. I know many people did as well because of the low rates, but many missed the boat too. My career and life strategy business did great things, even monetarily it was the best year. Hell, I even did well in my drone business.
I shut up, turned a ton of things off and focused on these four things. I hope you can utilize these three things that propelled me to the best success and will continue to do so:
- THE RIGHT FOCUS AND MINDSET
I have always said where you put your focus, your mind and energy flows to. I believe this area is one of the most critical that you can all do better. You must focus on what you want. What do you want to do? What goals do you want to achieve? When the Corona Virus hit, many of you fell apart and never recovered. You are good people and I feel for you. When the virus hit, I worked harder, longer, and I dug in and said this virus is not going to define me or my family. It will never sink us. I never posted negatively about the virus. I never went down the rabbit hole of the US Election. I removed a ton of negativity around me, and I unsubscribed from many email lists. Its easy for all of us to make excuses and blame the way things turned out on the Corona virus. Sure, there is some legitimacy around it hitting us hard, but I saw some business owners pivot and be creative to keep their business going. They had the right mindset and the energy to do whatever it took.
My circle of friends grew smaller too. I was listening to way too many people who were regurgitating the same bullshit that is already out there. I leveled up around successful people. I surrounded myself with better quality people who had success in where I wanted to go. I dressed better. I studied and learned what the most successful people have been doing. I studied them hard. Like Carl the Janitor, I opened their lockers and watched what they were doing and learned from them.
Many of you need to clear your mind today to get your focus and mindset back. January 1, 2021 is a new blank slate in a way. Changing your mindset can occur at any time. It is up to you. Not Trump, Not Biden, not Dr. Fauci, not your spouse, not your boss. YOU! Use today as a catalyst if you need to. Take the remainder of the day. Go for a walk. Go call someone. Write down what you want to achieve and go for it. No one is going to do it for you.
- PUT IN THE WORK
It is your job to make yourself do the crap you do not want to do. You have to put in the work. You have to put in long hours. You have to give up some things to get things. It’s a sacrifice. If you want to be successful in however you define success, you have to do many things you do not want to do. I did not get to the level of success this year by binge watching TV or writing about what I wanted to do on social media! You have to make the calls, write reports, follow up, make more phone calls, and work like you have never worked before. I do not like making cold calls, but I do them because it is a part of being successful. In the past, I never liked seeing myself online in videos. I got over that fear by doing the work, by putting myself out there. I stopped listening to everyone around me telling me I was nuts and giving me feedback on what they thought I should do. One person asked me how I got so good at videos. When I said what do you mean? She said you seem like you are not nervous and things just flow! I responded to her by saying that I forced myself to put videos out in January 2015, and my first videos stunk. I do consistent videos. Go look at them! LOL. By putting in the work and consistently doing videos, I am now helping others do the same.
I put the work in. Many nights I went to bed after midnight. I still got the sleep I needed and made up for it when I did not need to work past midnight. I did what I had to do. I remembered some of my early days in the Corporate world travelling to Washington, D.C. by train every day. Getting up at 3:00 a.m. every morning to go to work. That inspired me to keep focused and was an anchor to remind me of my ability to do what it took.
- Abundance Versus Scarcity
We humans are a funny species. We are so worried that we are going to lose things that we play life on defense. We do not seem to go on offense that much. We always believe things are not going to be there for us. That is why we had a toilet paper and disinfectant wipe shortage this year. Everyone hoarded them like they would never be made again. Many people will have disinfectant wipes sitting around for years and they will eventually dry up. So much money wasted. That is because we are playing life like we are going to lose and not be successful. You have an abundance of resources around you. So many people want to help. So many opportunities are out there. You just have to ask. You have to research. You must create a mindset of abundance, that everything is available for you. When the Corona virus hit, there was a bit of panic that people were going to stop buying homes or not need coaching programs. That was the furthest from the truth if you lived your life in the abundance mindset that there is plenty to go around. Its there for you.
- Outcome Instead Of Goal Setting
In my Corporate days, I could not stand the silly and stupid goals that were being passed down. They did not energize me. They never made sense. And the crazy thing was that many of these goals were started in mid-January and locked in by the beginning of March. WTF! I stopped setting goals. I created outcomes I wanted to see. I reverse engineered each outcome and wrote down what I needed to do to get there. If you begin with the end result in mind, it excites you, it energizes, you. It is much easier to work backwards and figure out the steps. And it is less overwhelming.
An example is you have an outcome of 1,000 YouTube subscribers by December 31, 2021. Write that outcome down and then determine what steps you need to take. Record and upload five videos a week. Share them across multiple channels. Call two friends a week and ask them to subscribe. Send five emails out. Those are the steps you have to take to get to your outcome. Stop setting goals and start creating outcomes. Start with five outcomes. You do not need to create so many. Start small and add as you can.
I took an hour today to celebrate 2020 and all the gifts it gave us. 2020 is in the past for me but for some it still not is in the rear view mirror. The world is counting on you to be you and rise up to who you are supposed to be. The real question is, are you ready to step up in 2021?
READ MOREMusicians Play Until They Die
Rockstars come and go. Musicians play until they die – Eddie Van Halen
The passing of Eddie Van Halen was yet another blow for us in the crazy ass year of 2020. For me, Eddie was a rock god! The way he played, the charisma, the way he changed the guitar, he had it all. He was a musician and kept on playing. And now he is gone and all we have left are the memories. His death hurts for sure. Eddie was one of the most influential guitarists of all time, and he changed how the guitar was played and how it was made! I always like to reflect on a person that was someone that influenced me, and there are many lessons we can learn from Eddie and his music career.
Passion
If there was ever a word for what I can use to describe Eddie, it is passion. You need that to love what you do. I’ll take it a step further and call it healthy obsession passion. That is the good passion that gets you up out of bed when you do not want to get out of bed. One of the best quotes I heard from Eddie was “practice. I used to sit on the edge of my bed with a six-pack of Schlitz Malt talls. My brother would go out at 7 pm to party and get laid, and when he’d come back at 3 am, I would still be sitting in the same place, playing guitar. I did that for years — I still do that.” Whatever your career path is, you need that healthy obsession passion. If you are not getting out of bed excited for the day, then you are in the wrong field. You are going to have days where you do not feel like it, but its that passion that gets you moving time and time again.
Practice
Eddie said it in that above-mentioned quote. He practiced. So many of you throw shit at the wall and hope it works. When it does not go your way after a few attempts you get pissed and quit. Eddie never quit. He practiced. He got better. Even when he was great, he was always improving. You must put in the work. The best musicians out there all have that in common, the work their ass off. They do not stop at some point and say I’m great! They keep on improving.
Be Innovative
All the greats are known for something unique that sets them apart. Eddie was no exception with the guitar. He changed how people viewed the guitar. He stated, “I started doing all kinds of weird stuff on the guitar, which became part of my playing. I started doing harmonics and tapping on the guitar and pulling off strings and doing all this weird stuff that no one had ever done before.” If you truly want to change people’s lives or make an impact, you have to do what has not been done before. You have to take risks, you have to experiment, and not be afraid of doing something different.
I see so many of you out there trying to do the same shit other people are doing. You are just repackaging or repurposing someone else’s content. Its sad. Sure, you are going to be influenced significantly by someone, but get out there and be your own person. Take that influence and change how things are different. Be bold. Be you. That is what Eddie Van Halen did all of his life.
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READ MOREYour Social Media Feed Says It All
What you focus on is what you will get! Many of you have been asking why you see so much negativity on your social media feeds. Many of you have even taken your social media breaks or hiatus and announced it to the world that you are leaving!! I will give you a great real-life example of why this happens.
I was in the grocery store waiting in line Friday after President Trump was taken to Walter Reed Hospital. In the other isle, I overheard a conversation between two friends in line. A woman was talking about all the negativity on social media and how she is going to quit social media. She then proceeds to put her groceries up on the conveyor and about three minutes later, she starts telling her friend she just looked at her phone and saw all the nasty political posts. And this was the kicker for me. She tells her friend that one negative political post is funny, and she is tagging her friend to see it. Did she not say she was quitting social media?
That example is the perfect example as to why your social media feed is filled with garbage. The algorithms work. The social media companies are showing you exactly what you want to see. Think about this example as well. You go on Google and search for shoes. Then you return to your Facebook feed a little while later and see all shoe ads. Again, the algorithms are working fine.
As humans, we are attracted to what is going on around us. We are curious. We want to be in the know. We are voyeurs. We watch other people’s rise and fall and comment on it. We do like the negativity! You do not believe so??? Then why is it all around us right now? We are filling our social media feeds with the negativity ourselves. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube are not creating this content. You are! Facebook is not going to show you posts that are not relevant to you at the current time. They want you to hang around on the platform. The same with Twitter. Search up some things and then your feed is filled with those things later on.
Right now, with all the crap going on it is easier to be negative towards things. Even when you interview for a job, and you start having that inner dialog with yourself that you probably did not get the job. If you want to stop seeing the negative posts, then stop contributing to them. If you want to get that job, then focus on getting it.
I speak on this topic from personal experience. Earlier in the year, I commented on some negative political posts. I even commented on some friend’s posts that were extremely rude and negative of a school district. Within an hour my news feed changed with political posts and I saw more posts where people were complaining. Once I stopped commenting, liking, and sharing, my news feed changed without me having to do anything else than not focus on the negativity. I took it a step further and anyone that was consistently negative in such a way, I unfollowed those posts too. There is no need for that in my life. All of that negativity is an energy drain. And that same should go for you as well.
Even with being negative towards my workload saying I will never get through this. What happened? I started to procrastinate and not get things done. I caught myself complaining that I was too busy. LOL. Too busy??? Being busy with many clients is a positive.
Where you focus, your energy and thoughts go. It really is that simple. Remove all that negativity from your newsfeeds and watch it change quickly. Catch yourself doing the self-sabotage talk early on and replace those thoughts with positive realistic thoughts. It takes practice to do all of that. After all we are human and we sometimes revert back to the negativity to make us feel better. Keep catching yourself early on. Start focusing on all the good that is going on right now. You have the ability to do that. You just choose not to.
READ MOREYour Circle Decreases In Size But Increases In Value
A few weeks ago, someone came up to me and said, “you basically have no friends.” My first reaction for about two seconds was shocked. Then I realized, I was not totally fazed by that statement. Years ago, a comment like that would have made me angry or upset for a while. Then the real question popped inside my head. Do I really have friends?
The answer of course is yes. But my circle of friends is different now. When I was little and even into my early 20’s, I was a people pleaser. I wanted to be friends with everyone. If someone was not my friend, I wanted to know why not. And I would work overtime to figure out how to be friends with them.
Over the last few years, I realized its not the quantity, but the quality that matters most. So, I closed my circle of friends even tighter. I have a handful of what I call true friends. I have associates or groups of people I am associated with, and they are not friends. During the latter stages of my corporate career, this became the truth. I would associate and hang out, but that was it. Unless something developed into a true friendship, I would not force it. They are associates or people I have a common interest with. There is a difference there.
The problem in society is that everyone is trying to be friends with everyone. People even go as far to associate with negative people, staying around them to be their friend. That is crazy! I am not saying we should not be friendly with everyone and diss people. I am simply saying that you cannot be friends with everyone. It just does not work. I tried that for many years.
It really starts early on in school. The popular kids have the most friends around them. Everyone wants to hang out with them. It is like a currency to have a certain number of friends, especially these days in society. It is the scarcity mindset we start gravitating towards. It comes from our most basic human desire to want to be liked and loved by everyone. That mentality is going to hamper your ability to be successful. There is no way you can be friends with everyone or the masses. I am not saying you should have a specific number of friends but have quality over quantity.
When I closed my circle of friends to a handful, I noticed a major shift. I was being held more accountable. They would not tolerate mediocrity from me. They cared. They told me the truth and called me out on things when they felt needed to. They did not hold back. And it worked both ways. I found myself doing the same things for them. I felt that I could go into battle with them and trust them fully. That is what a true friend does for you.
I think of my circle of friends in this way now….less friends, less bullshit, more quality experiences in life. It might decrease in size but the value is huge!!!
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