Today we have a video interview and some wisdom from one of our favorite entrepreneurs here at – Craig Ballantyne of http://www.turbulencetraining.com and Early to Rise at earlytorise.com
We are not normally into hyping anyone up – but lets just say that Craig’s attitude, personal discipline and writing style commands a huge following. Craig has a remarkable goal that we here at IncomeDiary hugely admire: To help 10 Million men and women transform their lives.
Surround yourself with positive people. Get rid of the toxic ones in your life. You become whom you associate with.
Those who know Craig will know how disciplined he is and the rules by which he lives his life. Indeed his 12 Rules are one of the most shared pages at EarlyToRise.com
Wisdom and Life Hacks From A Favorite Entrepreneur
1. I do not engage in confrontations with anyone, in-person or online. This is a waste of time and energy. If I have caused harm, I apologize and fix the situation. And then I take a deep breath, relax, breathe out, and re-focus my efforts back on my work and goals
2. I am guided by these two phrases:
a) “Nothing matters.” – I can only work towards the major, massive goals and my vision of helping others, while the opinions of others do not matter to my goals.
b) “It will all be over soon.”
3. Everything that happens to me – good and bad – is my personal responsibility. I blame no one but myself. These are the choices I’ve made – this is the life I’m living. I will accept the consequences of my actions.
To read more about Craig’s 12 Rules visit here.
If Craig is not already someone who is on your reading list – do yourself a big favour and follow him
Early in August Barry Dunlop and Craig caught up with each other in St Petersburg Russia – the video below records part of their exchange and discussions about Passive Income and how you achieve it amongst other things:
Video Transcript (Edited – Not verbatim)
Barry Dunlop: I read an article from you recently on Passive Income – I call it the “myth of passive income.” Can you elaborate on your multiple streams of passive income Craig and what it really means…
Craig Ballantyne: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve worked so hard to put in place all of those things that are making me money when I’m not there. Some of them are products that I had created 7, 8, 10 years ago even. Some of them are businesses that I’ve built with partners, who are doing the work and I invest the capital. Some are affiliate relationships.
While I am traveling / on vacation emails will be sent out to our various lists. But these emails were set up last month, even though they will go out today and make me money while I’m here on vacation. But none of that stuff is really passive.
It was years of work. You can cut that into months of work now because of what we know, but I learned things the hard way. I put that all in place and it’s paying off today. So, yes, I do make money while I sleep. I do make money while I’m on vacation – the shopping cart is always working and my posts are being viewed but it’s not passive income.
The more you build that foundation wider, the higher the pyramid goes, the more success you’re going to have, the more people you’re going to help. It can almost feel like passive income some days, but it is the result of a heck of a lot of work earlier
Barry: So you’re not promising an El Dorado, or a get rich-quick-type of scenario.
Craig: No. Not that you can’t get rich quick…
You can.
…which is fine and good if you help a lot of people the right way. I know a lot of people that have become very rich very quickly. If you take a look at history, Mark Zuckerberg got rich quickly compared to someone like Aristotle Onassis who built his fortune up over decades.
Barry: That’s an extremely good point. Another question – Let’s say somebody is starting an online business for the first time. What would be the chief skills you’d recommend that they would learn?
Craig: I would learn how to sell. In fact, I think you did a great thing when you were a young man. You joined Amway, you learned how to sell.
Craig: You learned to sell nose to nose, toes to toes, face to face. I wish I would have done that when I was younger. But I did learn how to do copywriting. At the end of the day, if you’re going to make money in anything, you have to learn how to sell. Even if you just want to be an employee, you have to learn how to sell the employer on hiring you.
But as an Internet-business owner, as opposed to an Internet marketer which has the stigma — as a business owner, we need to learn how to sell. We need to learn how to sell, whether it’s face to face or whether during presentations from the stage or whether it’s copywriting and email writing. So pick your best way of selling.
Focus on that. Study everybody that you can. Really study the marketplace and really study your competitors who will become your cooperators. Then also pick one way, one bullet that is going to be your source of traffic. One that aligns with your natural skills and your interests.
If you can’t imagine yourself sitting in front of a computer for two hours to write an article, the good news is you don’t have to do that these days with Instagram and YouTube etc. Pick something you have a natural talent for. For example become a YouTube star – I.e put all put all your energy into YouTube if that is the medium you prefer to communicate in.
Rather than trying to dominate Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or affiliate marketing just pick one and really, really focus on it and just blow it out of the water and really dominate that. So that’s the two things, the skills of selling and the skills of getting people to know about you. Figure out what works best for your personality and natural skill set.
Barry: You and I had an interesting conversation the other evening about the education of traveling. You and I both travel a fair amount and I think your next stop is Lithuania? Is that correct?
Craig: Yeah, Lithuania for the Blacksmith Liberty & Entrepreneurship Camp. We do that every year for young entrepreneurs. So check that out and apply if you’re a young person. It’s a free camp and we teach you everything we know.
Barry: One final thing, Craig, which I think is very important, as well. Where can people find out more about you and what you do? I know, for instance, you work a lot with my friend Bedros. Do you want to give him a shout-out or anything like that? People will want to find out about where they can connect with you.
Craig: Yeah. Bedros is the big brother I never had and I just told him that today. He is my business partner in a mastermind group we run. We do these one-day events all over North America. We haven’t yet come over into the Russian Federation, yet, although he is Armenian and we should get over here someday. But we do them and we would love to see you there. You can find out more and watch a video from Bedros, (who’s high energy) at bedroslive.com.
Then you can read more of my articles at two websites, earlytorise.com, which is business building and wisdom. Then internetindependence.com, where we show you how to build an actively passive income.
Special Note:
=> Craig Ballantyne is the creator of The Perfect Day Formula – the one Self Help book and training anyone serious about success should own.
=> Barry Dunlop is a lifelong entrepreneur who launched his first Internet Business in 1998. He invests in renewable energy technology, Domain Names plus buying and selling websites for profit. You can follow / message Barry on Twitter