Notice my site … changed a bit hasn’t it.

Used to look consistent.  Now … not so much. Used to be a mix-mash of traditional html, WordPress blog and forum. But at least it looked consistent.

Now not so much.

That’s not the least of it. I use WordPress to drive a number of sites that are part of the TrainingNOW family and a number of other companies (e.g. VProz) that I’m either involved in or otherwise have a relationship with (i.e. maintain). The problem is that WordPress broke all my sites in the last update.

Yes, I said broke my sites.

As a “former” techie, this ticks me off. But then again, I come from a platform that doesn’t EVER have legacy code in the way PCs do. Upgrade? Cool. But it had better not break what went before or it’s back to the drawing board. Which means there’s always new stuff to learn without unlearning the old. But that’s a heck of a lot easier than rewriting a million dollars in application code. (For the techies in the group, any html in pages was lost, workarounds around the menu stopped working around, and plugin options suddenly stopped the plugin from working. And oh yes, the theme I was using is no longer maintained so I couldn’t even keep the look consistent.)

But, since we’re all internet marketers here, I’m going to ignore the details and focus on the business effects.

Yesterday, was supposed to be a day of writing a new course. This week is turning into a write-off as appointments get in the way of producing. What was supposed to be a day of squeezing production between the appointments ended up being a day of fixing webpages. Including one that allowed my customers to download a product they had paid for. (At least it didn’t affect LearningCreators!). What really hurt was that this download was actually hit three times by the “changes”. No sooner did I fix one problem but another further down the stream appeared.

So what can we learn from this?

1. Being able to download product is critical. (That means test it in full and fix it immediately).
2. Don’t upgrade WordPress (or its plugins and theme’s) unless you have time to verify it hasn’t broken anything.
3. If the pages need to appear consistent, then use WordPress for the whole site (not just the blog).  Replacing a theme is easy. Replacing a theme and customizing it to look like your brand is not that hard. Replacing a theme and then customizing it to look identical to the html version is a major pain. (Technically, you can use a common CSS. But since WordPress has added improved Page handling, it isn’t necessary).
4. Identify your critical processes (such as product delivery). Always have a backup ready to go at a moment’s notice. The backup should appear as transparent to the user as possible.
5. Be flexible with release dates for product. Build in lots of time between completion and release. Then hope and work toward not needing that time.
6. Watch the upgrade sequence. All themes and plugins should be upgraded shortly after a major WordPress release. If not, you need to check that they aren’t obsolete. If they are then you need to start the process of replacing them.
7. Be flexible. Stuff happens. And always at the worst possible time.
8. Don’t overcommit. You’re running a business (and have a life). That means you need to make appointments. But don’t let the number of appointments overload your ability to work on the business.
9. Balance is needed in your business. Too much production and not enough marketing and you won’t sell. Too much marketing and not enough production and you won’t have enough product to sell. Too much production and/or marketing, at the expense of not enough administration and you could find yourself not being able to deliver what you sell. Or know what has sold and what you should produce. (Okay, I’m cheating here. This is actually something I’ve learned over the last six months. I just had it reinforced.)
10. Project management rules are really business rules. The good habits that I’ve learned as a project manager are the same habits I need to remember as a business manager and entrepreneur. (Or vice versa)

Good luck with your business!

Since I’m in the “expert” business — in all my businesses — I follow a number of the so-called “gurus”. Unfortunately, some of them seem to know what they are talking about but frankly price their products out of my range. Understandable, they are looking for people who are at the next stage up from me. Cool. I understand that. Fortunately many of them give away a lot of great information.

One  of those gurus I follow is a fellow by the name of Frank Kern. He is a master of the live video and his giveaways are always valuable. One of  his yearly giveaways is The State of The Internet Address — lots of American xxxx of course but then again it is a pastische of the US President’s State of the Nation address. If you click on the link you’ll open the video up in another window.

Watch it. The information it contains is essentially what I’ve been preaching for years now. But it’s something that a lot of “gurus” seem to ignore. Besides it is a good example of how to work a camera.

BTW — no, I’m not getting anything from this recommendation. (Silly me)! I’m suggesting it because I agree with him. On the other hand, be aware that he is going to be selling at the end.

So what does he have to say in summary?

1. To succeed you need to have:

1. Technology (least important) (e.g. push button traffic)
2. Marketing (not as important as we think)
3. A Magic Bullet Product (most important) (i.e. the perfect product to solve your customer’s most important problem)

1. Generate leads through advertising (and we always pay for advertising)
2. Convert leads into Customers (through good salesmanship)
3. Delight your customers

Hope this helps in developing your own bullet product!

One of the solutions I have found to that problem is to play videos and audios in the background while I write.  Or at least put words to pay since I typically have written the piece long before. It saves time, and I learn and work at the same time. For most of my findings the amount of attention I pay to the background is sufficient to learn the material.

Unfortunately, every once in a while I find my self stopping and paying attention to the background “noise”. Even worse sometimes I end up putting my work aside and picking up another page to begin work on an idea that the “noise” has burned into my brain.

That is the nature of this video I found on the TEDxWaterloo site.

One of the core elements of the Content Mapping system is determining what it is your reader wants to read. You never want to bother writing anything that your reader has no interest in. It doesn’t matter what media you choose. In fact, you need to do this no matter what business you are in (it applies outside of the Expert/Information Product/Training business too).

In the full Content Map system, there is a whole process associated with identifying and building upon this.  In the Content Map itself, one half of the map is concerned with documenting and communicating that information to your hindbrain.

In the discussions on delivery, I regularly bring up the concept of presenting as though you were conversing with your audience. You want to sound like a conversation around the kitchen table. Or a bar if you’re more comfortable there. Or your living room Chesterfield. You need to talk to your audience in the natural way that you speak with your friends.

It is seldom that I have heard these ideas brought together and spoken of in quite so succinct and well thought out way.

So I present to you The Walrus … (in the much more agreeable and entertaining form of Shelley Ambrose)

Welcome to the third and last of the series of free videos on “Finding the Time to Write”.

If you want more information on this topic, check out http://www.learningcreators.com/buyvideoa.htm. There you’ll find a 2 DVD home study course on this topic.

Now so far, we’ve covered the three areas that you need to focus on in order to “Find the Time to Write”.  They form what I’ve called the Work Equation. Unless you balance them, you’ll never find the time to write your book. You’ll just go from one problem to another.  You fix one problem and you find another reason not to write. Just because it’s a series of excuses doesn’t mean it’s your fault. It just means you haven’t solved the whole problem.

Next, we covered the solutions to the whole issue. This is what we need to do in those three areas in order to ensure that we solve the whole problem.

We need to:

• Motivate ourselves – and keep our motivation up
• Find 4 hours of time per week as a minimum

And

• Make it as quick and easy as we can to write

Motivate, Find the Time, Use a System. Do one and the problem will reoccur. Do all three and you’ll succeed.

Cool.

Now today, I’m going to give you three tips — one in each area — to help you create your own system. By the way, these are different tips from those in the DVD workshop.

So let’s get started.

First off, you need to build your desire to write your book. To do that you need to motivate yourself just like you would for any other employee. And then, you need to sustain that motivation.

Picking the best motivation involves a number of models that I frankly don’t have time to show you in 5 minutes. In our two DVD course, we can go through the most important but in 5 minutes, there’s just not enough time. Sorry.

So my tip, instead, is going to focus on how to sustain your motivation. How to actually motivate you after you’ve chosen your motivations.

All of the windows operating systems – XP, Vista, and 7 can replace the picture you use behind your desktop. With Vista and 7, you can use a slide show. With XP, you need a tool you can download from Microsoft.  If you use a Mac, you can also do a slide show.

Find yourself pictures that illustrate why you are writing your book. Find pictures that illustrate what is motivating you. Pictures that will inspire you. Then use a picture manipulation tool — Paint will even do the job — and add a phrase or sentence to drive the point home.

Then all you need to do is add the pictures as a rotating slideshow desktop.

Whenever you aren’t taking up the whole desktop with a program, you’ll see the reasons for writing. Even if you only see a part of the picture, it’ll help to focus your mind on your motivations to write a book.

Now the second part of the solution is that you need to find the time to write.

So how much time are you going to need?

At your most efficient, you can expect to write about 5,000 words in one morning.  Now for most people, that’s also the most you can reasonably expect to write in a day. That means that for a 100-page book you’re going to need about five writing days or five four-hour blocks of time to write. Plus you’ll need a little bit for research and planning. But that you can squeeze in anywhere. We’re talking an hour here, an hour there.

Once you’ve eliminated all the time you waste, you may find that you still can’t get enough time to write a book. So try hiring a temporary worker to take on one of your tasks. Writing your book is presumably worth more than the ten or twenty bucks you’ll spend on getting your lawn cut. Or on babysitting or on cleaning the living room. Check out your local high school. They sometimes have students who are looking for spending money. Or even work-terms. Having a research assistant for free, may help you finish your book sooner.

The third part of the solution is a little more complex. It’s the system you use to write. It’s more complex because it includes the writing processes but also your environment and your work habits.

Your environment has a major effect on how fast you can write. But sometimes it’s good to slow things down ­­– slightly. This preparation time can help you to focus yourself on your writing. That’s part of the reason you should always edit your previous day’s writing before you begin today’s writing.

Creating a ritual — any ritual — will also help. It doesn’t have to be complex. In fact, simple and fast is better. But it says to your brain — “It’s time to write now.” For example, checking my backpack to be sure my computer, my notebook and my pens are in the backpack is part of my ritual. Even though it’s done about fifteen minutes (or more) before I write. It helps me to prepare.

To create a ritual you need to do something the same way, every time.  That causes your brain to link the steps. And that means that one of those steps needs to be writing. So when building the ritual you absolutely MUST produce some writing. The second sub-tip is that it takes roughly 28 repetitions to create a ritual or habit.

Okay that’s the end of the video course. I hope you found it interesting and useful.  Thank you for your time and attention.

If you want more information, you can always check out the blog. However, we also have a 2 DVD home workshop that covers the information in these three videos in much greater detail. Now this home video workshop is essentially the same information we had in our full day live workshop.  We’ve even included the same exercises that we used. We’ve just called them homework. So this is over two and half hours of pure information.  Plus guidance developing your own responses — your own customized solution. We walk you through the entire process. From identifying where you are weak to choosing where you are going to write. And everything in between.

You can find out more information  by going to http://www.learningcreators.com/buyvideoa.htm

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work“

Emile Zola (1840-1902) French artist and philosopher

Welcome to the second in our series on “Finding the Time to Write”.

Now in the last session we discussed the real problem that we have. We cover it up by calling it “Not enough time to write” or some such excuse. Let me be clear here. I’m using the word excuse here because it focuses on a symptom or a solution.  Unless we focus on the real problem, we won’t be able to solve it. What’s the real problem? The real problem is simply “Not being able to get our book written”.

Examining that problem led us to the Work Equation.  When that equation gets out of balance then we can’t get any writing done.

Cool so far?

Okay, in the next six minutes or so of this session we’re going to talk about identifying a solution to our problem.

So how do you get the Work Equation back into balance? How do you make sure that you are really going to write?

The answer is that you need to deal with all three elements of the work equation. Doing just one won’t cut it. That’s why you get the usual advice that just doesn’t seem to work.  It’s not that it’s wrong per se. It just doesn’t work because it focuses on only part of the problem.

Yes, the solution is personal. My solution won’t work for you and your solutions won’t work for me. That’s fine. And yes, you can make poor decisions and poor choices. It’s unlikely given the problem but you can do it. Nevertheless, it’s not you.

The advice you usually get won’t work for anyone … except in a few unusual cases. It’s the advice itself that’s wrong.

In the last session, I gave the three most common versions of advice that are used to fix the problem of not being able to write a book. You’ll notice that “Figure out why you’re writing” and “Visualize the result” are focused on building the desire to write.  “Just get it done” is focused on the system.  Okay, I’m being generous here. Some people just like being cantankerous.  But I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt. I’m going to focus on the positive here and presume they are talking about following a particular system.

The fourth most common piece of advice I didn’t really mention last time. It is usually referred to as building time management skills. This is focused on the ‘available time’ part of the equation.

And that’s why they don’t work. They’re all attempting to fix all of the problem by only fixing part of the problem. And since they don’t fix the whole — something else just goes wrong.  You get past that bump and run into a wall.

So how do we deal with the whole? How do we fix the whole problem?

That’s where the three elements come in.

Now the first element is Desire. To build that up we need to focus on motivating ourselves. No different than any other employee. Just part of being a manager. We have to work too. We’re employees too. So you need to manage yourself. And part of that management is to keep yourself focused and interested in producing. In other words — motivated.

Now there’s two parts to motivation. The first is to figure out what will motivate you. “Figure out why you’re writing” as the guru said. Not entirely bad advice, just incomplete. The second part is that you need to continually reinforce the motivation. Motivation fades with time. It’s not a one-time effort. You need to continually motivate yourself.

The second element is Time. Let’s get practical here for a second. If you don’t have at least four hours to write per week, you’re never going to finish. Sorry. Even at four hours a week, you’re going to have a problem maintaining your motivation over the two months it will take to write a short 100-page book. So you need to find the time. And that means you may have to adjust your current schedule.

Look, we’re all busy today. I don’t know anyone who can just sit around for four hours a week. Or anyone who has a spare 24 hours to spend in a week. If you want to write, you’re going to have to become more efficient and more effective with your time. You’re going to have to steal minutes from other tasks.

Finally, the third element is actually three separate elements we can combine into one. Overall, I call it “The Effort Involved”. The solution to that piece of the pie lies in what we term your writing system. Now, I’m changing hats here for a second and talking from a Process Analyst point of view here. That’s why the “We”. It’s plural not royal. Okay?  A system — any system — consists of process, environment and agents. How you write is the process. You’re the agent in this case, so we’re really talking about your work habits. And by environment, we’re talking about where you write. Mix them together and you have a writing system.

And your writing system determines how long it will take you to write and how easy it will be.

So the solution to finding the time to write is really a combination of Motivation + System + Stealing Time from your busy day.

Now here’s the kicker. You’re going to have to determine the details of the solution yourself. Why? Because it needs to be customized for you. What works for me won’t work for you. What works for you won’t work for me.

However, there are commonalities … ideas that I can share from which you can pick and choose exactly what you will use. And that’s what the next session will be about.

I hope you enjoyed this session and that you found it useful. In our next and last session, I’m going to give you three practical tips to help you develop your solution to the problem of finding the time to write.  And I’ll also have a very special offer for you.

Next & Last Session – Due Friday!

Welcome to a five minute presentation by LearningCreators.  This is the first of three presentations on this topic.  So what’s the topic?

It’s probably the most common problem my customers complain of … Finding the time to write.

Everyone has a slightly different cut on the problem … “I don’t have the time to write because I work all day” or “I have to get my kids to school and soccer and football and … ” or maybe it’s a matter of “I don’t want to start because I’m not sure people will want to read it”.

But there’s one common theme throughout this …

Excuses!

And that tells me there’s a problem.

You see there’s a problem with problem solving. And providing excuses is a symptom of that problem.

In order to solve any problem, you need to be solving the real problem. You need to solve the problem that’s underlying the stated problem.  You need to drive down to the core of the issue.

In North America especially, we have a tendency to state problems in terms of one particular solution.  And we have a tendency to focus on symptoms and panaceas rather than looking at actual causes and actual solutions.  But that doesn’t help to cure problems. In fact, it leaves us chasing solutions to one symptom after another.

And that means if you look around you’ll find all kinds of “solutions” to the time problem. Everyone has a solution to finding the time to write.

For some gurus it’s “Figure out why you want to do this and that’ll carry you through”.  All you need is to do is build up your desire.

And then there’s the new agey gurus “Visualize the result if you do it and magic will happen.” They believe that if you dream it hard enough the universe will just magically make it happen.

And then there’s always the disciplinarian in the bunch who says, “Shut up, sit down, write. And stop cryin’ about it.” They don’t exactly give you a lot of latitude in fixing the problem. But that’s okay ’cause they don’t exactly give you a solution either.

The problem with all those solutions is they don’t seem to work.

You try one solution after another and they just don’t sustain you. You still haven’t got the time to write.

So you go on and you try someone else who says basically the same thing in different words, and guess what. It still doesn’t work.

So you start thinking it’s your fault… or you give up entirely. Well, guess what?

It isn’t your fault.

You have a problem and no one has bothered to help you solve it. You need to know the real problem if you’re going to solve the problem. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

So what’s the real problem?

It’s simple.

You want to write a book or create a course or whatever … but … it never seems to happen.

Well duh … I know it sounds really silly and simplistic. That’s because it is.

No one said the problem had to be hard. It just has to be the real problem and not a symptom or a solution.

The problem isn’t that you don’t have the time. The problem is that you want to write a book or create a course and it isn’t happening.  You can’t seem to build the energy to start and finish it.

One potential solution is that you need to find the time. But it’s only one solution. And that means that even if you find the time you’ll may never actually finish your book. Why? Because you’ve fixed the symptom not the problem.

We need to get further in behind the problem . We need to explore the situation a little deeper.

It turns out that how much writing you do is a combination of five elements.

• Your desire to write
• The amount of time you spend
• How hard it is to write
• How quickly you can start
• How effective you are at writing

You can combine the last three together to make things a little bit easier to understand and work with.

We call the result the Work Equation.

The amount of work you get done is proportional to

• The effort involved in writing
• Your desire to write

And

• How much time you have to write

If you aren’t writing, you’ve allowed one of the elements to overload the function. Something — we don’t know what — is out of step with the rest of the function. The result is that you aren’t getting anything done.  And you aren’t going to get anything done until you get all the elements into alignment.

So what’s the solution?

Well that’s the topic of our next 5 minute presentation.  I hope you’ll join us again in for the next presentation. I hope you’ve found this presentation has helped you get a better handle on your own problems finding the time to write. And that you’ll join us for the rest of the presentations.

Next Session – Due Thursday!

I remember my Grandfather.

He was an old man even back that far, with grey handlebar mustache — unchanged since his military days.  He used to tell us that an elephant stepped on his head and pushed all his hair down past his nose. But it couldn’t get past his mouth so that’s where it stayed.

He loved to tell tales, did my Granddad. We’d sit around quietly.  Egging him on. Listening intently as he spun one tall tale after the other.

But there was one set of stories that had to wait until he was much older. Or maybe it had to wait until I was much older. One set of tales that he avoided telling.

I remember one year when I was a teenager. A friend and I made the long drive up to spend a weekend in my Grandfather’s cottages.  My friend was fascinated with my Grandfather’s collection of souvenirs and pictures. Bullets in the shape of crosses. A shell casing converted to tobacco tin. A handgrenade, its deadly cargo long removed.  And my friend questioned my Granddad about each and every piece in that old white curio cabinet.

Finally, to get some peace, my Grandfather began to tell tales from his younger days. Tales that I believe he hoped to forget. Of why he coughed such a racking, harsh cough. And how the taste of the mustard gas lasted for days after.  And mixed with the smell of the trenches.

He spoke of how his best friend in the Signal Corp had gone out for a short run one day. Of taking his Indian motorcycle — a motorized bicycle to our eyes — and going out to look for him when he was late returning. Of finding part of him on the road and part in the ditch. Of how they would clear the piano wire from the roads in the morning. Only to find it strung up again the next day.  Neck high to a man on a motorcycle or a horse.

I remember him speaking of the next great war. Too old to serve, he stayed back home that time. Of how the Mounties, he said, would come to his home. Of how they would begin to speak to him in German. Him with his medals and memories. And his three sons and a future son-in-law fighting. Of how he would answer in Welsh and watch them try to reconcile his name with this strange language.

I remember my Uncle Bern.

In those days, memories of the war were strong. Television and movies played endless repeats of how the U.S. won the war.  And the old men — my Granddad and one of my uncles — would argue about battles they fought. And three of my uncles would swap stories of the planes they flew. And of kicking their mates out of the bunk above.

I remember how my Uncle Bern would leave the room. How he never participated in any of the discussions. How he would turn off the television when we wanted to watch the squad from “Combat” conquer their way across Europe.

I learned much later that he remembered the taste of the sand of Juno beach.

Today, my son is walking that beach. In safety (I hope).  In friendship (I trust).  In reverence (I believe).

Every September for the past few years, I help my scout troop to remember an even older war. A chance to remember when my ancestors drove back an invader. I believe in the importance of teaching the young men and women of my troop about life in the army of that time. Especially as we enter the 200 year celebration.


(please note, I do not have any interest in this film)

Tonight, I hope to attend Rememberance Lodge where men remember their brothers who have lost their lives. Some to defend our freedom from those who would have stolen it away. Some to defend our world from those who now wish only to destroy it. And I will join my brothers in celebrating those who even now protect our world.

I do not believe in war. But I do believe in the young men and women who risk their lives to protect what I hold dear.

I will remember.

Wondering why I haven’t posted lately?

Besides being busy with VProz and developing courses I’ve also written a new book.

Check out the Kindle version here.

Check out the print version here (Coming soon)

So what’s the book? It’s called “How to Document a Project Plan: What You Need to Know to Design a Project Management Plan Quickly and Easily”. It’s a detailed look at what you ned to do to create a comprehensive project plan that will help you succeed.

For more information you can go here.

Or to buy it …

On the Kindle go here

In paperback go here (coming soon)

Hey check it out …

TrainingNOW (our publishing arm) has published a new book How To Build A Raised Garden Bed on the Amazon Kindle.  Two seperate step by step plans to build a raised garden bed or box, plus suggestions on how to fill it and lots of ideas on where to go from there! Trust me these are easy to build.

Currently only available on the Kindle. You can buy it from Amazon at http://amzn.com/B005J2MW3W

Oh, yea — price. Would you believe only $4.97 U.S.. (Also available on Amazon U.K. and Amazon Germany)

So why am I announcing it?  It was written using our system!

One of the basic rules of internet marketing is that you need traffic. Everything starts with the traffic. It’s like a bricks and mortar store. If people don’t come into the store it really doesn’t matter how good your product is, how competitive it is or anything else. Without the foot traffic you aren’t going to sell anything.

And it’s no different over the internet.

In order to have an audience — readers, course attendees etc. — you need the traffic. After all, not everyone who investigates what you offer is going to want to listen/read/watch it. You need enough people passing by in order to get enough people to stick around.

So how do you do that?

One of the best techniques is Article Marketing. Many traffic techniques drive traffic to your site. But it’s often the wrong type of traffic. And that just chews up bandwidth and money. Article Marketing drives high quality traffic — traffic that sticks around and eventually buys.

Now, I’m no slacker when it comes to Article Marketing. But I’m also not the number one author on EzineArticles.com. My coach, Sean Mize is.

I’ve arranged with Sean to make his 6 MP3 audio series Article Marketing Advanced available to you. It will show you how to write articles that drive traffic that sticks, where to post your articles, and much, much more. You can find more information here.