Ray Edwards Show

Ready to start your online business? On this week's episode we'll talk about the 3 things you need to get dialed in first. I'll also be introducing my brand new cohost. Spiritual Foundations "Sometimes we need a geography to usher our soul into spaciousness." John Eldridge   John Eldridge is the author of a successful Christian book entitled Wild At Heart. The book speaks to the importance of getting out of the artificial world we've created and into the spaciousness of nature...camping, adventuring, journeying, etc. I think many of us these days feel a bit cramped, especially with our current circumstances so I recommend you note only read the book, but also take the advice. Tip of the Week This week's tip is to read John Eldridge's latest book, Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Mad In Get Your Life Back, New York Times bestselling author John Eldredge provides a practical, simple, and refreshing guide to taking your life back. By practicing a few wonder­fully simple practices—or what John calls "graces"—you can begin to recover your soul, disentangle from the tragedies of this broken world, and discover the restorative power of beauty. Ask yourself:                 Are you happy most of the time? Do you feel deeply loved?                                            Are you excited about your future? How often do you feel lighthearted? After reading this book you will… Learn how to insert the One Minute Pause into your day. Begin practicing "benevolent detachment" and truly let it all go. Offer kindness toward yourself in the choices you make. Drink in the simple beauty available to you every day. Take realistic steps to unplug from technology overload. These simple practices and others are ready for the taking. You don't need to abandon your life to get it back. Begin restoring your life here and now. Your soul will thank you for it. Starting an Online Business Today Online businesses are just as diverse as their brick and mortar counterparts, but regardless of whatever the business idea is that you're contemplating, there are three things that you must get in order to succeed while avoiding stress and overwhelm. Intention Know what you want, why do you want it, and have a plan for getting it. Focus Identify the key essential activities that will get you there. Schedule those - and obsessively ignore everything else. Turning out the noise in this season particularly is very important. Margin Give yourself extra time for rest, recreation, reflection, and if possible to be in nature. This is key to avoiding stress, overwhelm and eventual burnout. Links From This Week's Episode 6 Figure Small Group Intensive - This is an extremely exclusive event (only 8 people) for those who are serious about creating a 6 Figure Business in 6 Months or Less. If that sounds like you, click here to see if seating is available. This three day, travel-free event happens 11/5-11/7. Entrepreneur Spotlight - I'm shining a light on Pat Flynn this week because of the consistent, valuable content he has been sharing on his Youtube channel during the pandemic. Kris has been taking advantage of shelter-in-place time by practicing guitar and if you share that interest, he recommends you check out Active Melody's Youtube channel. This channel is a great example of Value First Marketing. Brian provides useful lessons every week for free with the option to expand on those with a premium membership. John Eldredge's latest book, Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices for a World Gone Mad. Eric Pickersgill photography - This is the photographer whose name escaped me during the podcast. Eric has done some great photos depicting the loneliness we can experience even when we're surrounded by other people. He does this by removing the smartphones, tablets and various technology leaving his subjects staring with empty expressions at empty hands. The "Water Bird Whistle" - Just for the sake of completeness and for those who were curious, here is the bird whistle (actually called a Warbler) Kris was referring to. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you in this show. We are also on Stitcher and Google, so if you're Team Android, feel free to find us there. Questions about the show? You can text me anytime at 509-245-2670

How do we move forward in the "next normal" as 2020 is about to be the past? What does thriving look like in ANY economy? That's what we're talking about with John Meese in today's episode. Spiritual Foundations "Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives." (Titus 3:14 NIV) I think this verse applies to us especially in these times. As entrepreneurs and business owners, what we're doing is not just about making money. Don't get me wrong, it definitely is about making money and that's fine, but it is also about providing for urgent needs. Be encouraged! You are needed because you provide for the urgent needs of others...You are not living an unproductive life.   Tip of the Week My tip this week is very simple, but the effect on your life will be profound! Batch your tasks. Put like tasks together. A great example of this is email. I used to check my email several times throughout the day which was most definitely a distraction. I now do this one time per day. It may take 30 or 45 minutes, but I respond to what is necessary and move on. This also works with content creation. For instance, I often record multiple podcasts in succession. I'm already setup to record...already "in the zone", so it makes sense to knock out more than one. Once I get a few weeks out of the way, it leaves some days on my calendar wide open, giving me the chance to create, or to recreate. Remember recreation is re-creation. You're recreating yourself - your inner-child, your inner-joy, your spark that makes life feel good. You can't be running sprint all the time. Batch your tasks and leave some space for this recreation...enjoy the margin in your life.   An Interview with John Meese John Meese is on a journey that would inspire any entrepreneur. I met him several years ago when he was still working his first job out of college, making about 30k a year. At the time, John had a new wife, new baby and was looking for a way to be an even better provider for his family. He became a student of Michael Hyatt's Platform University as well as my Copywriting Academy...two things that helped him make his first 10,000 dollars online in one week selling his first digital course. Apparently John made quite an impression on Michael Hyatt and was ultimately given the position of Brand Director and Dean of Platform University. Even while playing such a huge role in Michael Hyatt's organization, John still found time to continue building his own brand and launched a successful software company, Notable Themes, which produces some high quality themes for Wordpress (such the one I use on RayEdwards.com) Of course the path of an entrepreneur is not without obstacles. One of John's most recent ventures, a shared workspace for his fellow entrepreneurs in Columbia, Tennessee was shut down just 58 days after a successful grand opening due to Covid 19. The story of how John dealt with that situation is worth the listen to this week's episode. John didn't just lay down and let the pandemic dictate his business's fate. He actually managed to take advantage of the situation. He started contacting other well known entrepreneurs asking them if they would share their experience dealing with the pandemic. Of course, with all the lockdown free time, he got lots of yeses. Check out the fruits of those efforts (some great podcasts) available right here. You'll find info on John's upcoming book, Survive and Thrive - How to Build a Profitable Business in Any Economy (Including This One), at the same spot. How You Can Help Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts and give us a rating and review. Make sure you put your real name and website in the text of the review itself. We will definitely mention you in this show. We are also on Stitcher and Google, so if you're Team Android, feel free to find us there. Questions about the show? You can text me anytime at 509-245-2670

Eric Upton is one of my students with a success story that makes me smile. In this conversation, Eric talks about how we crossed paths, about where his career has gone since that time, and what he feels is in store for the future. A true example of how it's possible to reinvent your work, your life, and even your world. Spiritual Foundations "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:11-13 NIV) Eric describes the first major step of his journey like this, "Phoenix was not a place that we'd ever thought about going to, or moving to, or living in, but the more we prayed about it and looked into it, the more it became clear to us that [Phoenix] was where God was leading us..." This exemplifies the verses above and is a good reminder to try to recognize God's plan ("plans to prosper you and not to harm you"). And yes, sometimes it may not be obvious. Sometimes you'll need to put in the work ("Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.") Tip of the Week This week's tip is an addendum to last week's tip: Be intentional with Social Media. Social Media plays two roles in the life of an entrepreneur. At any given time it can be either: The driving force behind building your brand (creation) An endless waste of time (consumption) Now, I know that consumption can be part of a productive business strategy (e.g. reading what your audience or potential audience is saying about your business or industry. Gauging response to your latest campaign. Keeping an eye on your competition.); however, you know what I'm talking about when I say "endless waste of time" - The infinite scroll to see what catches your eye...not that finding out how your "friend" that you haven't seen since high school is coming along with the shed he's building isn't fun, but it's probably not going to advance your agenda. This is why you must be intentional with social media. I recommend you schedule separate times of day for consumption and creation. Decide when you will use social media as one of the most powerful (often free) tools in history and separate that from the time when you're just getting a thumb workout...clicking like on the latest Doug the Pug content. An Interview with Eric Upton Ever asked yourself something like, "Isn't it too late for me to start doing this thing since I've spent so many years doing that thing?" I'm sure your internal dialogue is more eloquent, but you get the idea. Even when transitioning into a career that you know will make you happier, you'll probably spend some time doing some soul searching (praying, talking to family and friends, etc.) before you make the move. And then, after all of that self-reflection, conversations with those closest to you, prayers and everything else you've done to affirm your decision...it's still scary. That's not a certainty for everyone, but for most of us, fear and anxiety are simply a normal part of this process. The key is how we respond to that fear. As Eric put it in our conversation, "Operate in spite of fear...move toward boldness even with the fear that's attached to it."

3 Pivots That Provide Prosperity What does it mean to pivot? The term "pivot" has become a buzzword referring to a significant business change -- ranging from mild to dramatic. A pivot is usually intended to help a business recover from a tough period, or survive after experiencing new competition or other factors that make the original business model unsustainable. Today I give you "3 Pivots That Propel Prosperity"   Spiritual Foundations "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." (1 Peter 4:10 New International Version) That's a powerful message even if you're not a religious or spiritual person. Look at the practicality in that statement: "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others..." If we don't serve others in business, we will not succeed. Maybe you can find some short term success by exploiting others, but to succeed long term - your business must serve others. Tip of the Week My tip this week is simple and you may find it bizarre, but here goes: Delete social media apps from your phone I know that may sound crazy to some, but I had a good reason to do this. I've been keeping an eye on my screen time lately and in doing so discovered that I was spending an alarming amount of time scrolling through Instagram, Facebook and a few other platforms. Don't get me wrong. I'm still active on social media, I just don't want it to be the default way that I spend my time when I could be doing other things (like being with the people I'm with). For the record, I kept Instagram installed because that service is designed specifically for mobile, but I only allow myself to scroll at specific times. I'm only a couple of weeks into the experiment, but so far it has been great for me. My mind is quieter, I'm less "worked up" about things that aren't my business and life is much better. 3 Pivots That Provide Prosperity The pivots I'm talking about today are "Mindset Pivots" which can help bring you prosperity in any business. You need to pivot: From Dabblery to Mastery From Sprint to Marathon From Resolution to Repetition From Dabblery to Mastery Okay, "Dabblery" is a word I'm pretty sure I made up, but I'll bet you can guess what it means. If you've been dabbling in social media promotions, dabbling with Youtube videos, dabbling with Facebook ads...or whatever else you're "dabbling" in - you need to stop dabbling and go for Mastery of a particular thing. When you dabble in something, you're not putting all of your effort into that thing. You're not giving it concentrated focus - and on some level, you may be doing this to give yourself an out if it doesn't work for you. "Oh, I was just dabbling with that..I didn't expect much." Instead of "dabblery", pursue mastery - it will serve you better. From Sprint to Marathon In today's business world, many people are in constant "sprint mode". They're sprinting from one project to the next...from one product to the next...from one platform to the next. 2020's economic oddities have caused a lot of sprinting as we try to figure out how to keep the wheels turning in the midst of all of the changes. I've done my fair share of sprinting this year, but I have committed to move back into the marathon mentality...to run the race with thoughtful preparation. From Resolution to Repetition As entrepreneurs, we make resolutions all the time (not just in January). "That didn't work, I'll never make that mistake again", and yet, next month we make the same mistake. I propose you stop making broad scope, grandiose resolutions and instead, start focusing on a few core habits that you can repeat day after day. Something like making a good, short post on social media every day isn't very exciting, sexy or particularly fun, but if you do it every day, it pays big dividends. Lose the resolutions and pick a few things to practice in repetition. Remember, putting in the reps gets you the muscles.

I get the opportunity to speak with dozens of entrepreneurs and small business owners every week. They share their victories with me ... and also their troubles.   They're looking for solutions. Without question, the biggest problem I hear about these days is the virus.   No, I'm not talking about COVID. I'm talking about the "mind virus".   The mind virus seems to be spreading like wildfire. It's a virus that can completely take your business - or even your life.   The number one symptom of the "mind virus"?  Fear.   And fear can be sneaky - it often comes disguised as anger, self-righteousness, and it's most destructive form - paranoia.   Conspiracy "theories".   "Us versus them" thinking.   At a time when the world needs us to step up and lead, we need to remember to lead with compassion. We need to remember that what the world needs now is love.   Fear kills the rational, thinking mind, and puts our thinking brain at the mercy of our so-called "lizard brain". The lizard brain is not thinking, It is in "fight or flight" mode all the time.   The lizard brain is not what we need to be using now. It doesn't serve us at a time like this. There's a reason satan is depicted in the Bible as reptile.   "Fear is the mind killer." - Frank Herbert   What is the antidote to fear? Rational thought. In fact, in today's podcast episode I have concocted a five-part immunization against fear.   And while this recipe may not make you 100% immune to fear, it will make you highly resistant. And even if you do catch a slight case of "the fears", this five part recipe what have you back on your feet in no time.   Want the recipe? Just listen to "The 5 Attitudes of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs" right now.   Spiritual Foundations   "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." - Matthew 11:28-30,The Message   Tip Of The Week   And here's a tip...   Upgrade your webcam setup with your DSLR and Ecamm Live Tutorials     The 5 Attitudes of Extraordinary Entrepreneurs   1. The Attitude of Growth vs Static 2. The Attitude of Positive vs Negative 3. The Attitude of Progress vs Perfection 4. The Attitude of Grace vs Grind 5. The Attitude of FOR vs TO   QUESTION: What do you think? Which of the 5 Attitudes challenges you most? Give me your feedback at rayedwards.com/482