What is keeping you from…

Starting, stopping, finishing, scrapping?

This was the question I posed to Fire Nation email subscribers, and I received an incredible amount of fantastic responses, which I addressed in this weekends Jam Session.

December 15, 2012 Weekend Jam Session 

John Lee Dumas:  Fire Nation, welcome to another Weekend Jam Session. I hope you’re gearing up or gearing down for the holidays, whichever you prefer, and that you’re just really excited to wind down 2012 and then just ignite into 2013. I sent out an email to my treasured Fire Nation subscribers the other day with this question – what do you think is keeping you from starting/stopping/finishing and/or scrapping? And I just left it at that. I really just wanted people to hit the reply button and come back with the first sentence that came to mind. I asked for one sentence, and Fire Nation, you replied in droves. I have a ton of great responses, and I’ve picked out some of my favorites to run through right now.

Let’s start off with Tom [Works]. Nothing. Nothing is stopping him from starting/stopping/finishing or scrapping. Well, Tom, I expect a lot from you coming up in 2013 then. Joe Cassandra from 7MEntrepreneur.com said, “Unsure of which way I should go and procrastination.” You are in good company, Joe. Chris Murphy of Chris Murphy Hub wrote, “I really think overthinking is keeping me from starting.” True words, Chris. Sometimes you just can’t think. You just got to act. Shannon Rice from SendOutCards/ShannonRice wrote, “Myself. I am my own boss and it’s a gift and a curse at times. Consistency is key.” I could not agree with you more, Shannon. I pledge consistency to my Fire Nation fans with an episode every single day, five days a week. I believe it is extremely important to keep that pledge. Tyson Freer of TheSocialSketch.com wrote, “Analysis paralysis for creating a valuable, genuine product that consumers want. Addressing the why someone would buy or hire something from me and fear of not being heard in a crowd of noise.” Tyson, that was incredibly well put. You are speaking to the core of so many entrepreneurs. Just keep going, keep being genuine, keep being yourself, and you will find your voice above the noise.

Nate [Guvya], “Lack of time. How do I fit it in when I’m working my other job all the time?” Well, Nate, this is a legitimate concern. There are definitely a lot of entrepreneurs who have made it happen before and after work, but it’s really those who are able to focus their time and effort, keep their eye on the prize, that make the biggest gains the quickest, but if that’s just not possible, you just need to devote consistent time before or after work. Wake up one hour early and just work one hour on your passion. And after one week, you’ll have five hours of hard work and you’ll be five hours closer to your dream. Stephanie McCoy. “Unfortunately, procrastination has become an all too familiar friend.” Stephanie, this is one friend we would all like to dump to the curb. Procrastination plagues us all. It’s human nature, it always will. Learn to embrace it when you can and move past it as soon as you can.

Roger Tayfel. “Fear, momentum. Fear and pride.” I know he wrote fear twice because that is such a huge reason every entrepreneur hesitates. Fear, fear, fear. Get over that fear and get moving, Roger of RTScreenDesigns.com. Kathleen [Titus] wrote, “Time. I travel too much at my current job and it’s tough to find the time to transition out.” Kathleen, that is a legitimate concern, but what are you doing when you’re on those planes, trains, automobiles? Use that. Use that time to move forward towards your passions, towards your dreams. Mike [McKeenan] wrote, “Monetization of my passion is the greatest barrier I have to pay the bills.” Mike, you are preaching to the choir. I could not be more passionate about EntrepreneurOnFire and this podcast, but believe me, monetization is a struggle for every entrepreneur, it’s a struggle for me, but man, just keep doing the right thing. “If you want to make millions, you need to inspire millions.” MJ DeMarco of Fastlane Millionaire.

Vicky Flower wrote, “What is keeping me from building my money tree ala Millionaire Fastlane, absolutely nothing. 2013 is my year to break out with no turning back.” Wow, Vicky! That was timely. I didn’t even look ahead here, and I referenced MJ DeMarco on the last one. Crazy stuff. Ray Pare of www.dofahn.com. “Thank you for asking. In a word, habits. We all get stuck on the same pattern that has become a habit, and that can become the hardest thing to change as well as the tipping point with the most impact. For example, when entrepreneurs stop working hard and start working smart, they usually launch and move forward. In my business, whenever I stop selling and start giving, I always end up selling something. It is a habit of mine to sell, yet it always feels great to give. I hope this helps.” Ray, this is a great lesson learned. It is so true, it is so powerful. When you give, you receive. Earnest Matthew [Hoates]. “I have doubts about if what I am working to provide will be bringing real value to an audience.” Earnest, if it’s valuable to you, if you’re passionate about it, if you’re genuine about it, believe me, there are people out there that will find absolute value in what you are creating. So continue to move forward. Create an amazing product or service, and people will come to you.

Scott Skinger of TrainSignal. “Extreme focus on what is most important in the next 90 days.” Scott, love this, because a lot of times we are just looking too far ahead. If we can just set these 90 day goals and really focus on them, great things will come. Eric Woodchek. “Time, John. Time. That’s why I’m hiring a real and virtual assistant in 2013. Imaging Spectrum Inc., ImagineSpectrum.com.” Eric, I commend you for doing that. Hiring three VAs for my business has been an incredible way to leverage my time and to make sure that I’m focusing on what I need to do, while not missing the important key aspects of my business. Tim Paige from The Awesome Podcast, which has not yet launched, and which I’m going to be a guest upon this January – I’m very excited – wrote, “Getting prepared for the launch of my first business!!” Well, that is a great thing. It’s an exciting time, Tim. Use that motivation to keep going forward. [S. Gulstein] wrote, “Starting. No guidance or membership.” Well, Mrs. [Gulstein], it looks like you need to join “Ignite,” the elite mastermind for all Fire Nation listeners. Check it out at IgniteMastermind.com. We are building a great community of entrepreneurs who are going to support, encourage and just be there for each other in what can sometimes be a lonely entrepreneurial world.

Alright. We’re going to end today with Dean Patino of playbaseballclassics.com. He wrote a little more than a sentence, which was my “request,” but I’m cool with that because he definitely wrote some things of value and I’d love to share it with Fire Nation. “John, what I think is keeping me from starting is time. I have a day job and only have so much bandwidth, but plenty of time. So perhaps I’m just not managing it as best as possible. What I think is keeping me from stopping is my drive. Belief in what I’m doing. I love the business ideas I work on and will be sure to see them through to success. What I think is keeping me from finishing is time. I’m seeing a theme here that quite frankly, I didn’t think I had an issue with since I do make a great effort to set aside as much time as possible to do what I love to do.”

Well, Dean, thank you for addressing each one of these questions that I asked. It’s just an incredible lesson that time can be our greatest curse and it can be also our greatest blessing, depending upon how we use it. A good friend of mine, Justin Lamontagne, said the words, “All we have is time,” and that is so true. So when you look at it that way, that all we have is time, you realize what a valuable commodity time is and just don’t let anything or anybody waste that time that you have right now.

Okay, Fire Nation, I really hope you enjoyed these responses as much as I enjoyed reading them. It’s just so great when the Fire Nation community comes together, pitches in and shares their struggles, their issues because we are all in the same boat. We all have the same issues and when we verbalize them, we can come together and encourage each other to do better and to stay passionate. So Fire Nation, I’m asking you, stay passionate, stay driven, stay inspired and keep listening to EntrepreneurOnFire. Have a great weekend, guys!

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