There is a saying by motivational speaker Zig Ziglar that goes “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

For most of my 20-year career (most of it spent online, thought the same principles of relationship building and business building apply as much to virtual business as much as brick-and-mortar ones), I’ve focused on a couple of values:

• Say what you do when you teach, but more importantly do what you say.
• Understand the expectations of your students/customers, then go beyond it.
• Always aim to be better.

A mentor, who owned about 20 lifestyle brand stores in Singapore, explained the concept of value this way: “I watch how my employees work. Some will work at parity. You pay them $2,000 and they’ll put in $2,000 of effort.

“Most will put in half the effort of what you’re paying them. They’re the underperformers.

“I look out for those who work as if they’re being paid twice what I’m paying them. These are the ones who become the store managers and executives at the head office.”

Some of you may know that I’ve been in “retirement” mode for the past 8 years or so, about the time my older daughter was born.

I had built up my Internet business which was generating passive income, leaving me to spend time with my older daughter, and later my younger daughter when she was born.

Online marketing gave me the opportunity to have the ultimate liberty – the freedom over my own time and the freedom to work from my home or at the recreation room at my apartment. (I’m not really keen on drinking coffee at Starbucks all day…besides I’ve had better java elsewhere).

So whether it was managing affiliates in Asia or in the US, I’m fortunate to have had the flexibility to create my own consulting gigs and build my business around my lifestyle.

I still don’t subscribe to the idea of building and running a business in an hour a day or doing a 4-hour workweek. If you’re driven and passionate about what you do, you will probably end up doing more than an 8- or 10-hour workday. You just have the freedom to take a 2-week vacation after a long project.

Since turning 41 last month, I’ve been in the mode of working on projects which keep me engaged and are also projects that I can see myself doing a year, 2 years, 10 years from now.

Tip: If you don’t enjoy what you’re doing now, even if you hire employees later, it won’t make it anymore enjoyable. It can be quite painful. So tread carefully.

Earlier this year, I wanted to launch one of my “backburner” projects – the lifehacking books which would eventually become the Mindware Recode and the other books that Tamar Weinberg and I have written.

It’s time to bring it to the next phase.

I’m starting a training program which will focus on 2 areas:

• Life Hacks: Strategies and stuff you can use to enhance the quality of your life – your health, your relationships, your personal productivity.
• Biz Hacks: Whether you’re a business owner, a solopreneur or an employee, you can take some of the techniques I’ll be sharing to help improve your effectiveness in the business world.

If you want to think of it this way, it’s taking the system and techniques that I’ve written about in the Mindware Recode and using it to “recode” yourself to become better, fast and achieve more!

Interested?

Here is the thing.
I am aware of product launch strategies, having big-bang launches, working with joint venture partners, having them mail to their 100,000-strong mailing lists.

Think of this as the anti-product launch.

I plan to work with small numbers, I plan to have an application process, I will be reviewing each person, possibly doing a further interview/discussion over email or Skype. This is to make sure that I can help you.

I’ll be focusing on sharing the systems I have developed which tend to be more “slow burn”. It will take some time to build it, it will take some effort, you won’t make a million bucks overnight. I think that stuff only works with lottery tickets.

What I want to do is find 5 people who would be a good fit for the group and kick the project off that way. If I can’t help you, I’ll let you know and I’ll make a recommendation if there’s a book or other resource that might help you.

As of 2.49pm, Monday, 13 Oct, I have shortlisted 3, so I have slots for another 2. This is not a scarcity ploy, I want to work with a small group with whom I can help make a difference. There will be no miracle “oh, we’ve opened up x slots”. It will be just the 5 slots.

Maintaining a good reputation and delivering quality have and will continue to be important for me, so this will be where the bulk of my time will be spent. I focus on specific, actionable strategies, so if you’re a believer in making dreamboards, then doing nothing to make it come true, this won’t be for you.

I’m structuring the program so that you can participate whether you’re in Asia, Europe or North America. I’ll also be organizing monthly online meetups via voice conference, Google Hangouts or some of the new services I’ve been testing out.

If you’re interested, you can fill in this survey.

I read all responses (just like I did for the Mindware Recode survey) and reply.

If I feel you’re a good match, I’ll ping you with info about the program.
It’s an ongoing program, you are welcome to stay as long as you like and leave when you want.

You are welcome to message me with any questions or post in the comments below.

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Questions:
-> What are you working on now?

My main areas of focus are:
I’m writing ebooks which I publish on the Amazon Kindle platform, which tend to be in the humor or fiction genre.
I’m planning to write more often at WhoIsAndrewWee.com and build up the list and focus more on email marketing.
I’m building up affiliate campaigns (usually more cost-per-sale offers which have a much higher payout than cost-per-action (CPA) offers)

-> How does the training program work? How much does it cost? Is there a money-back guarantee?

It will work like a monthly membership, there’s a monthly fee.

The first 5 will get an attractive price and will be “grandfathered” so your membership fee will be locked in, unless you quit.

There will be a “no-questions-asked” money-back guarantee. Maintaining a community is important to me and selecting the members via a screening/interview process will help ensure the community remains high quality. I’ve also run my own membership sites before, so I’ve got a pretty good handle on moderating the community.

-> Is this a money making thing? Can’t you help me for free?

Yes, it’s a profit-driven venture. I have to feed my family too. I’ve always focused on making a business viable, else it becomes a charity. I’ll show you how I build my businesses, so you can replicate the same techniques in your own business. The main factors in how successful you will be tend to rely on how consistent and focused you are on doing what you’re supposed to do. (You’ll get what you’re supposed to get).

The “help me for free, I’ll give you half my profit” request comes up quite often, especially at entrepreneur start-up events. I’ve also spend time giving someone career advice for 1-2 hours for free. What I’ve found is that people value something based on how much they paid for it. Specifically, if you’ve personally invested in something, you’re more likely to take action. You can read up the analogy about the farmer eating eggs and bacon, then telling his son that the chicken is invested in breakfast, but the pig is committed… I’ve done free stuff, the experience has not turned out to be positive. If anything, think about how much you should be investing in yourself.

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Here is the survey link.

And if you have questions, drop me a mail via my contact form.

So every info product “guru” has been mailing their list for the last couple of weeks, trying to warm them up and maximize sales conversions on launch day.

In common with other high profile info product launches, this typically results in a bonus offering frenzy, where short-sighted list owners will offer the farm (including the kitchen sink and their next born) in exchange for a product purchase through their affiliate link.

Just for the record, I’m referring to the affiliate promotions, not the core product.

It can get a little ridiculous when someone is offering you $1,000 or $10,000 or even $25,000 worth of “bonuses” for purchasing a $397 or $997 product.

Granted many of these bonus products may be virtual or digital in nature with zero stocking and zero duplication costs, but I think doing a hype-y promotion of this nature takes its toll – and it will extract a higher price than the 50% or 75% commission you might earn – it will affect your reputation.

If nothing else, this is pretty incestuous and unhealthy.

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If you’re in the internet marketing or business opportunity niche for the long term, your reputation will mean a lot to you. Because people are buying a product based on your recommendation, it would be comforting to know that you have their best interests at heart (ie. it’s not just the $500 commission that will greasing your palms…).

I would think the law of social reciprocity and the “pay it forward” principles would apply for those who are going to be in this field for the longhaul, not merely for the opportunity to grease your palms for a few nickels – potentially the ultimate manifestation of poor man’s thinking.

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Perhaps internet marketing veteran Ryan Deiss sums it best in a recent mailing to his list – to buy Traffic Secrets direct from John’s website if they feel it will benefit them.

Ryan also mentions “I’m frankly not willing to devalue my own content by giving it all away for a stinkin’ affiliate commission, so for strategic reasons I’ve decided not to participate in the “Bonus Fandango” that will soon commence and instead suggest you check the forums to see who’s offering the best deal.”

Spoken like someone who’s in it for the longterm.

If you’ve developed your own product or service, you’ll realize that the development process can go on forever, as you’re adding enhancements, updates, tweaks to it.

But if you take a page out of the Microsoft book, you should launch a product when you feel it’s ready and launch the service packs later.

Listening to the audio version of Donald Trump’s “How To Get Rich” helped echoed the lessons I’ve learned over the years, you can’t expect to please all your critics, not everyone is going to become a rabid fan. Just go for the ones that matter.

There’re a number of factors why budding marketers don’t see success from their projects, and in extreme cases never get round to launching their products or services.

Here’re a couple of principles to get things done:

• Have a goal

You may not know what exactly you want when you start out, but you need a general direction. As you continue in your efforts, you refine your outcome and move towards it. Being specific about what you want to achieve means you know when you get there. Else you could get a concrete result and not know you’ve arrived.

• Time awareness

This sounds like commonsense, but I’ve known marketers who’ve been in “testing” phase for a year or more. If you achieve your outcome, but take 20 years to do so, it won’t help you. Being aware of how much time has passed will help you get more done in a shorter time. Use a time schedule, stop watch, scheduler, whatever it takes.

Of the various resources available to you – time, labor, funds – you can lose and gain back money, but time is one of the few that moves in one direction – once the time has gone, it’s gone.

• The moment of reckoning

This is the ultimate barometer of whether you’ll be a success…or a spectacular failure. There comes a moment when all the forces you’ve been putting together meets the market. And that’s when you know your efforts have come together, or come apart.

If you’ve ever proposed to a life partner, this is the critical few seconds after you’ve popped the question. Remember that moment of uncertainty, doubt and at the same time, elation?

It’s moving to and past the moment of reckoning that will bring you success.