CBC Kelly: Are All Who Portray Themselves As Successful Really So?

Continuing with my Cross Blog Conversation with Kelly McCausey at Sparkplugging WAHM 2.0 after she answered my questions to her here, I’m now going to attempt to answer…

Do you ever look at someone who calls themselves successful and think ‘eh…they don’t seem all that successful to me.’? What creates the disconnect between what someone thinks about themselves and what others see? What do you see that seems to make their self statements unbelievable?

You know Kelly, your question comes at a time when I’m starting to scrutinize who and what I want to promote on my website and at the forefront of my mind are all the ’so called’ internet marketing gurus. ‘Fake it ’til you make it’ seems to be the mantra of the times for these people and for that and other reasons I won’t get into right now, I’m starting to get really picky in who and what I promote. And Kelly, the reason I have to do this goes right back to the heart of your question.

I’m sure many internet marketers feel that in order to compete in a competitive industry they have to ‘fake it ’til they make it’. And I agree that a certain level of confidence is necessary for a small business to survive, but when I get 15-20 emails from one marketer in a week about his new launch, I begin to wonder if the ’scarcity tactic’ he’s trying to employ is truth or fiction. And what about when they come back after the stated closing date and re-open the offer? What am I to think but that they didn’t sell enough the first time around? The way they treat their list, it’s a wonder they make any sales at all.

For the last few years I’ve been working a day job and haven’t been entrenched in the internet marketing scene until I started this website. Now that I’ve been at it for a few months I am blown away at the incestuous nature of the people who lead this industry. The arrogant portrayal of themselves and their million dollar launches after they and all their friends (always the same group) bombard my email box is getting to be quite annoying. Can you believe I had 30 emails in a ten day span from one marketer with 10 of those emails coming on one day? Not to mention all his “friend’s” emails promoting the same product launch? Geesh. I’m sorry, I’m starting to rant, but it’s really starting to get to me.

I read a fantastic blog post by Rick Butts the other day titled “I Am Joe’s Email List – An Open Letter To Internet Marketers” and I guess that’s what got me started thinking. The post was from last summer but like I said, I’m just now getting back into the industry, so please forgive me if it’s a post ‘everyone’ has already read.

Now, having said all that, I do want to add that I’m not talking about ALL the top people in this industry, I still find a few that honestly give great information along with a few offers here and there. These people and their products are the ones I will continue to promote. And if you look through my site I don’t think you’re going to find any offers from the “idiot emailing gurus”, at least not recently.

So anyway, back to your questions, how can I tell the difference between someone who’s really successful and someone who’s faking? What gives them away? I don’t know that I can always tell the difference, especially when it’s someone who’s been faking for a long time. When little clues come across like I mentioned above I tend to wonder, but really there’s no way to know for sure. I just hope that ultimately honesty will prevail.

But you know, to quite honest, I really don’t care if someone’s ‘fakin’ it ’til they make,’ it just doesn’t matter. If their product is good and worth the money they ask for it, let ‘um fake it. Just don’t act like an email idiot. Give me good information along side the offers. Give me a reason to look forward to hearing from you. And you know, I think there are some people out there that fit that bill, and those are the people I’m going to continue promoting.

Kelly, I guess my answer turned into a bit of a rant, I’m sorry about that. I hope I actually answered your question.  So now, my question for you. Do you think the online community is hungry for offerings that are more “boutique” in nature? Can an affiliate marketer make a success of themselves without the “idiot emailing gurus” by marketing great products by writers and teachers that are not part of the “internet marketing guru inner circle”?

Looking forward to your response Kelly!

Reba

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Cross Blog Converstation: Kelly McCausey

I have to be honest, when Kelly McCausey asked me to have a CBC on Twitter last night, I didn’t know what she was talking about. But, after asking Kelly (yeah, I felt a bit unplugged) and reading a bit on Kelly’s blog, WAHM 2.0 at SparkPlugging, I figured it out and I was so glad she asked. Be sure to follow Kelly on Twitter, she may just ask you to have a CBC!

For those of you who don’t know what a Cross Blog Conversation is, just click the link, Kelly has a great post on her WahmTalkRadio blog that explains it very well. Basically, Kelly and I are going to have a conversation and you will need to go to each of our respective blogs to follow it. She started it today with her post about How long it takes to be a Success on the Internet.

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Oh Kelly, you would have to ask the two hardest questions for me to answer, ‘How do we define Success?’ and ‘How often has your definition of success been changed?’.

I started on the internet about ten years ago. I was so proud that I had taught myself FrontPage97 that I just had to show-off my skills and do a website for my daughter’s cheerleading team. That blossomed into a web design business I did for a couple of years. I made about $30k a year from that but it didn’t satisfy me, I was still working for other people selling my time by the hour. That business model just didn’t work for me.

Next I started selling stuffed animals to gift basket companies. I opened it as a division of a company Brent and I already had for, at that time, five years. That was a mistake because my little internet company became very popular doing over $600k a year in sales. However, the other company was going belly-up and dragged my gift basket company down with it.

So Kelly, I feel like both those ventures could be defined as successful because at that time they helped support my family. However, I’m not quite sure they would fulfill my definition of success today, as they gave me the money I needed but didn’t give me a complete sense of happiness.

You see, today my definition of success includes not only earning the amount of money I’ve defined as my goal, but the day-to-day work must also give me a sense of fulfillment, satisfaction, and achievement, along with flexibility and freedom. I currently have a day job that fulfills the monetary and achievement portion of the formula, but flexibility and freedom is missing and that’s why I’m so desperately trying to make my online business work.

This morning I read a report by Dr. Mani called “How Long Does Success Take?“. In that report Dr. Mani talks about how it took him eight years online before he was able to consider his online work a success. He also talks about planning for success, having inspirations, making the choice to succeed, how your dreams will be tested, using mentors, and learning from success. One thing he said really resonated with me when I reflect over the last five years of trying to succeed with an online business:

Imagine driving in a car to a place you want to go, and the road gets
bumpy. What do you do?

You could stop, get out of the car, and curse your bad luck.

You could turn your car around and go back to the smooth, quiet road to
nowhere.

Or…

You could keep going on, determined to get where you’re going –
and knowing things will get better when you reach there.

Not just keep going, but actually ENJOY the ride. And even be thankful
that you’ve got a car, and that you know the way!

I know what I’ve done. I’ve either gotten out of the car and cursed, or more often, turned around and took the smooth highway. And if I’m honest with myself, that’s why I have a day job…the cushy paycheck every two weeks, four weeks of vaca, 401k, heath bennies, a close commute, and a really nice boss.

But the real question is, “Am I truly happy?”

Well you could probably ask Brent when I’m walking out the door at 8:00 a.m. after being up till 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. after a trip to watch our daughter play college volleyball (she’s 3 hours away, we go anyway, even on work nights). I really want my flexibility. I don’t want to be accountable to anyone but myself and until I have that, I cannot consider myself successful again.

So, here I stand again, at a cross roads with this fairly new website wondering if it will really ever make any money. Should I just give it up and take the smooth highway, continuing to work my cushy job hoping to eventually work my way up the ladder a little bit higher, or should I stay on the bumpy road and keep doing what I know I’ve gotta do to make this online gig a success, even if it takes eight years?

All I can say is, I’m so tired of that damn smooth highway! I need a little bumps to keep me young!

Kelly, you’ve known me for a long time and you’ve seen me flip flop from thing to thing. Let me ask you, ‘How long does it take to become successful online?‘ and ‘What’s it going to take to get there?‘

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