Do You Have A Tribe?

Working online means many hours in isolation. We sit at our laptop or desktop working at our online business. Usually at home or a handy place like Starbucks. Getting work done requires concentration and blocking out chatter and other people.

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We’re social animals by nature and staying in touch digitally isn’t 100% satisfying. Our digital friends are part of our tribe – or we’re part of a larger tribe together. But nothing beats face-to-face contact. Shared experiences bring great rewards.

We all benefit from association with the right people. Who are the right people? How do we meet them? How do they add dimension to our lives? What are the qualities of those you want to have in your circles?

Many Saturdays I drive 80 miles round-trip for a Meetup lunch with other online marketers. Some are top earners. Others are just starting.

Over lunch at an outdoor food court we’re masterminding and sharing what’s working in our businesses. Often side conversations of things other than business bind our friendship further.

These midday sessions are incredible.  I’m always a student first, so I too am getting a lot of good ideas.

One of the most powerful things you can do for your business is find other business owners who are operating at about the same level as you are, and some who are a few steps ahead, and mastermind with them.

As entrepreneurs we tend to get stuck in a rut from time to time.  We become fixated on whatever is currently working, and sometimes even overly dependent on those things.

So every so often it’s a good idea to get out of the office and go and meet fellow business owners for new ideas and knowledge.

What’s interesting about the people in our group is that even though they have very different approaches to how they build their businesses, they also have a lot of things in common:

– No excuses.

You don’t hear any of these people whining about “information overload” or how “no one helps me” or “I don’t have enough time to run my business with everything else I have to do.”

They just find a way, and they’ve operated with that mentality from the start.

– They understand they get paid to promote.

They are constantly in promotion mode.  Placing new ads.  Following up with prospects.  Making irresistible offers.

This is how top performers operate.  They have this ‘get it done’ mentality where it’s all about rapid implementation.  Normal people might take 2 months to do the same thing, and this is why they don’t make the big bucks online.

– They are optimistic.  

They all choose to think positive about the future, and they were this way long before they ever started making serious money.  In my own business, I’m extremely optimistic about the next few years.  Even when there were some big challenges last year and people all around me were saying, “Aren’t you worried??” – I told them the “no” – which is the truth.  I always knew there was plenty of growth to be had, and now for March 2017 my business is on track to have its greatest revenue month of all time.  This is how you should think about your business.

– Last of all they are resilient in the face of challenges.  

ALL of them had constant challenges along the way, and had to work their way through them.

They’ve had days where it seems everything was falling apart.

But they never allowed any challenge to stop them.

Same thing with me.

I’m so used to challenges that I accept them as the norm.  When they come up, I automatically switch to thinking of solutions.

Sometimes I’m amused when I see people want to become entrepreneurs because they think they’ll have a lot less challenges.

They think they’ll work a lot less, make a lot more, and live the ‘laptop lifestyle’ almost immediately after starting.  That’s very possible, but it certainly never starts out that way.

The truth is, the more successful you become, the bigger the challenges get.

For example, right now I’m dealing with some pretty serious challenges—I’m thinking of three major ones right now.

But I’m used to it.  And long ago I accepted it as all part of the journey.

Here’s what you should know about business challenges…

When you’re going through a serious business challenge (like a merchant account getting shut down, or a key employee quitting, etc), you think it’s the worst thing in the world.

It’s easy to get caught up in the drama and think your problem is the end of the world.

But if you just keep pushing to find the solution, you can always make it through.

And you will always come out on the other end smarter and stronger.

As you grow, your capacity to handle the bigger challenges which come with the higher revenue levels will expand.

Challenges actually get bigger as the size of your business increases – and you get paid to solve them.  Solve the bigger challenges, and you’ll get paid bigger money.

Find a meetup in your area. Join Facebook groups of others doing what you do online. Attend masterminds, industry trade shows, and regional events featuring industry top earners. When there introduce yourself to speakers and other attendees. Socialize with them. Get to know others in your field.

That’s how you develop your place in our digital world. Share with others and they share in return. Online marketing is a positive endeavor. We honestly cheer one another on to great success.

 

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