Inner Game of Marketing, Part I

One thing about putting a personal post out into the world like I did yesterday is that you’re gonna get a reaction… a personal one.

The heartfelt and personal responses were like a tidal wave of love and emotion that hit me (in a good way). So first thing today I wanted to say is thank YOU.

And I have GREAT news… I learned that Sylvie is already home from her mastectomy surgery… I don’t want to jump ahead of Michel and Sylvie making her news public, but let’s just say the news is good. All good… I couldn’t be happier right now.

Today I want to talk about the Inner Game of Info Marketing, as I’ve been calling it.

I’m going to do a series of posts on this… because it is a big topic (though I’ll try not to do such long posts as yesterday, lol).

Every business has products, right? Well in Info Marketing, where you come up with ideas for products that are usually digital information, print, audio or video… it’s all coming from inside your head. Even if you are promoting other people’s products as an affiliate, your sales copy, your promotional strategy, all come out of you.

I’m sure you’ve heard that ‘we attract what we think about the most’ and similar concepts… well, in a very practical and real sense, how well your ‘mind’ works will have a direct impact on your Info Business income.

If you’re feeling ’sluggish’ or ‘depressed’ you are unlikely to come up with a hot product idea, right?

I know this has been true for me. Over the years, I’ve had some incredible highs… like back in the early 90’s when I got my first six figure success. But over the years that followed, I was grinding away under the weight of my business that I’d built, and I often felt like my brain couldn’t get out of it’s own way.

I couldn’t ‘Think my way out of a wet paper bag’!

Not good. It affected my income when I went through those ‘funks’ — also not good when you’re responsible for feeding your wife and children.

Like I said yesterday, life today is incredibly fast paced… and on top of it all, most people are sedentary, sitting behind a desk these days.

A fitness guru friend of mine who works with top athletes and stars shared an interesting truth with me that most people don’t understand about health fitness. Just because you are sitting at a desk, banging away at the keyboard and all that, doesn’t mean you aren’t active… it’s just that your MIND is what is getting all the drain, not your other muscles.

That’s why at the end of the work day, most people have no energy left to ‘work out’ at the gym. You burned calories, but in your head… so your body adapts to sitting around… but that’s a different story.

My point is, a few years ago I started to look into how you can exercise ‘your mind’ to make it, well, more profitable.

If your mind was operating at peak efficiency, you’d have… better ideas, faster learning of new information, and greater clarity and focus… all the things people complain they don’t have when suffering from ‘information overload’, right?

Let me cover the basics of how you can get the most out of your brain…

• Nutrition: I know, you’ve heard it before (and I could talk the rest of this post just about this topic) but what you feed yourself impacts your brain. Lots of junk food, low sleep, stress, and alcohol are all going to contribute to a poorly functioning brain.
• Exercise: Just walking 20 to 30 minutes EVERYDAY will boost your alertness, your creativity, and your energy level… so even if you never set foot in the gym or hang clothing on your Bowflex at home, get out and walk every day. Not just for your health, but for your business.
• Music: Whatever music gets your energy up and pumps your creative juices, that’s what you want to listen to when you are working. I listen to music on headphones when I write and it works like magic.
• Feed your brain: don’t worry about ‘mastering’ all the new content, just read, watch, listen to whatever catches your interest. Stretch your ususal topics to check out other industries, other cultures, history, economics, whatever you can… and your mind will make connections between the new data… even if you conciously don’t fully understand all the details.
• Look for patterns: everything in life has core truths and principles that guide what happens and why. Start to look for what parenting has in common with government, for example. What today’s events has to do with 100 years ago. Or, how marketing that worked 100 years ago might work NOW. Become a student of patterns and you’ll be amazed at what you come up with.
• Exercise your brain: Over the years, I’ve tried other things like meditation and various subliminal audio products to turbo charge my ‘mental muscles’ work out. Today, I have found a more high tech route that involves directly stimulating different parts of the brain. This is cutting edge, though some of the technology has been around for over 30 years.

Let me explain that last point some more.

I’m no so good at meditation. I get bored or fall asleep… even though I believe in the power of meditation and ‘inner work’ like that. So I had a problem. I began to look into ’subliminal’ tapes, and such years ago.

Most of it has been of little practical or measurable help.

The reason for that is that most ’subliminal’ stuff is ‘low tech’ and is missing the key ingredients of what actually stimulates your brain power. That’s why all those ‘quit smoking’ and other tapes don’t really work.

What works is NOT just about whispering little phrases in your ear over and over again just below your concious hearing ability.

But… they are on the right track.

What’s the secret?

Directly stimulating your brainwaves.

Recently I’ve been looking at products that use advanced brain wave science to literally work out your head so that you get ’synchronized’ and stimulate the neurons, very much like a good cardio workout for your head.

Over time, you literally boost your brain power in a way that would take forever using traditional mind exercises or relying on your natural rate of learning.

But it’s all in the science… the only products like this that work have very sophisticated brainwave technology (which sounds scary, but is totally safe).

I’ve used a number of products over the last three years and have liked them… and I’ll probably talk about them all at some point.

For now, here’s what I’ve experienced… I feel more at peace, more alert, and more creative in many cases.

Some of the audios have different purposes, so I use them for different things.

Over all… I’ve got an advantage that most people don’t because I’m literally tuning my brain into a high performance engine for information.

I’d been meaning to do this "Inner Game" series and kick it off… but today is the day because Stephen Pierce is launching his OptiMINDzation CD for the public . I’ve been using it and I like it… and I’m sure you’ve heard others talking about the launch today.

But here’s my take on it…

Just like you do different exercises for different results… and Stephen’s got his brain wave technology tuned to do specific things.

My mind is invigorated and ‘awake’ after just 20 minutes. Oddly enough, you don’t even have to use headphones.

Does it work?

First of all, I know Stephen and one of the things I’ve always been fascinated with about him is how brilliant he is. This guy went from being a street kid in gangs… walking away from all that and becoming one of the most successful marketing minds today.

That’s not an exaggeration.

Words like genius and brilliant are tossed about these days like confetti… but this guy has spoken at seminars and in talks I’ve had with him… he’s just making connections with ideas and strategies like few can match. Besides, some of the very biggest companies, like Ford Motors, and others, rely on Stephen and his team… impressive to say the least.

Come to find out recently, Stephen is also an expert on this brainwave technology stuff… I’m not surprised.

If there is an edge, and advantage, a benefit in something, I’ve found he knows about it and Stephen puts it into action.

I’ve been using the OptiMINDzation as part of my ‘Inner Game’ strategy to make my mind the best source of ideas as possible. The other things I’m going to talk about in this series of posts will all be enhanced if your brain is operating at maximum efficiency.

You’ve probably had a car in your life that needed a tune up and ran like a piece of junk until it went in and got some new parts… then it drove like new again.

Well, that’s how I look at these brain wave audio products… they’re a relaxing and passive way to leverage your brain power without having to do a lot of ‘mental heavy lifting’ or to master ‘meditation’.

This may not be for you… but, I’d suggest you go check out the OptiMINDzation site because Stephen goes into the science behind the different technologies and why some are massively more effective than others.

It’s a free education that will explain this topic way better than I can.

I’m like the guy who doesn’t know how to fix a car or really how an engine works… but I can drive the car wherever I want to go.

That’s how I am with this high tech brain stuff… I use it, I recommend it, but don’t ask me to explain it

Like I said, in this field all products are NOT created equal… but if you are interested in exploring this, I do recommend Stephen’s product from personal experience.

For today… let me underscore that many people are held back in their Info product business because of simple things like diet (eating lots of sugar and junk food kills your energy), lack of sleep (a tired mind is not a bright mind), and lack of stimulation (music is one of my favorite and most enjoyable brain boosters).

Understand this… nothing else in your business will work well if your head is out of whack… or underperforming

So before we talk about more advanced concepts, I wanted to cover this foundation stuff.

And, if you want to turbo charge your brain power, I’m glad to say that Stephen Pierce is finally making this OptiMINDzation CD public… and I recommend that you check it out. I’ve been very excited about this since he first told me about it.

Some of the most brilliant marketers out there are using technology to boost their brain power and cashing in.

I’m beginning to think, in this info age with all the data rushing at us every day sooner or later it’s going to require all the tools we can just to keep up. Our brains weren’t originally designed to process this much info… but the good news is that we’re perfectly capable of handling much, much more than we think with a little ‘brain exercise’. It’s just that few people talk about how to do that.

So, again, even if you’re just curious about how to stimulate the brain for maxium (and safe) power, go check out Steven’s OptiMINDzation CD.

Next time, I’ll go into a concept that few ever talk about.

It’s an ‘Inner Game’ piece that if you understand it you’ll be able to leap forward in your self confidence and blow through blocks that are holding you back in your business. The tricky part is, the odds are you don’t even know what’s holding you back.

I’ll give you a simple exercise you can do in 5 minutes that I use all the time to eliminating blocks

Until then… all the best!

- Craig