Newton used to say that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Being able to pull all the strings might have been what have set you on this entrepreneurial quest on the first place.

But strings are no fun when you’re the marionette.

Do you feel more pulled or pushed regarding your internet business?

Feeling pushed is to feel shoved.  Nobody likes that.  However,  a gentle but firm pull amounts to being carried along with solid momentum. It carries the idea of magnetism, attraction.

Which describes you best?

Goals Pull, Needs Push

Just getting by is a lousy motivator. Carry on with that mindset and you’ll never have enough and success will remain elusive.

Beware, it’s easy to lose sight of your goals when your needs starts knocking at your door.

If your goals are framed right, they’re positive.  Needs are usually framed in the negative.

“Paying all the bills” is a lousy goal.  “Not becoming a bag lady” is need-driven, not goals-driven and tends to be a “pushy” idea.

“Being financially independent, free from debt by 2011″ is a positive idea that has a sense of pull.  Feel that?

Passion Pulls, Duty Pushes

The never-ending struggle between “wanting-to” and “having-to” may characterize your mindset.  Or, maybe for you it’s the difference between “should do” and “can do.”

Duty says, “I’m getting out of bed today because it’s my have to go to work.”  You’ll just get by and your work will be below par, I’m sure.

There may be nobility in duty, but there is little drive in it.

Passion, however, says, “I’m getting out of bed today because I can’t wait to do what I love.  I’ve got a contribution to make that I’m excited about.  Now, let’s get to it.”

Future Pulls, Past Pushes

A past corporate life might have lulled you into the security of working within a structure.  Now, the sense of what’s “sure” pushes and prods you every time you start trying to dream.

The past says, “you’ve never done this before.” Or, “you tried something like this before and failed.  Remember?”

Now, that’s a nasty shove.

A clear vision of a successful future, however, will compel you to action.  And each deliberate, planned action will bear with it a sense of stepping forward into that future as it pulls like a magnet.  Let the dreams of the future be your standard, not your past.

Anticipation Pulls, Fear Pushes

As an entrepreneur, you’ll soon come to the realization that only your are responsible for making your dream happen no matter which side of the bed you wake up on.

However, there is such a thing as being shoved out of bed by some irrational fear that you’ve got to hack again at the thing you hate (your corporate safety net) or you’ll lose everything.

Fear can show up both in procrastination as well as repelling  a prospect.  You show me a coach who feels like he has to have that client and inside he’s desperately afraid he’ll lose them, and I’ll show you a coach who can’t close the sale because of that fact.

However, the same coach that can’t wait to simply help his ideal client succeed (and is sure that anyone who rejects his services is simply making room for the next guy who won’t), that’s the coach whose very anticipation becomes attractive to the ideal client he seeks.  Hey, the pull even works both ways.  (So does the push, for that matter.  Watch out.)

Fear is to some extent healthy, but I consistently find that the anticipation of enjoying the sweet savor of a goal achieved is a much better motivator.

A Plans of Action Pulls, A Notion Pushes

The Eureka! Phenomenon feels good in the beginning.  So good in fact, that many an embryonic entrepreneur simply goes from fix to fix, enjoying the jolts of what Michael Gerber called the “entrepreneurial seizure.”

Those notions are so good that they demand to be attended to.  It’s like having a brain full of small children all needy and clamoring for your affection and attention.  Real pushy.  Generally, one really hooks you, but can easily sit in n “notion mode”…  just pushing and poking.

But when you cross the line, take out the yellow pad, lick that pencil and start setting dates and writing “next actions” lists, something happens.

Almost like turning that magnet around North to South, the push becomes a pull and you can actually see how this thing is going to happen.  It’s so magnetic, that it’s the first thing on your mind in the morning.  You hardly remember getting up and showering.  You can wait to get to the next item on the list – the next task in the plan – the next step toward success.

Mark this:  the successful internet business entrepreneurs are marked far more by pull than push.  And the internet graveyard is littered with those who got pushed right over the edge.

Take Action:

Choose the one in the above list that you struggle with the most and take some time to re-frame your thinking.  Orient your mindset around what pulls, that which has a sense of magnetism and momentum toward a positive place in your life that you’ve envisioned.  Journal the process.

What About You? Leave Your Comments Below:

• Of which one of the above contrasts are you on the push side?

• Of which one of the above contrasts are you on the pull side?

And today, I say to you:  Now is the time.

None of your excuses are good enough.

>> Recession
>> Lack of skill
>> Sense of Inadequacy
>> Lack of Time

Look, you only have so many days left to live.  And today is almost over.  Look how fast 2008 went by. How long are you going to postpone the first steps of a meaningful journey to fulfill your calling?

Where would you be right now if you had made an attempt to start a year ago?

If next week goes like this week, how much closer will you be to living out your calling in the Untethered way that you dream?

START something, would you?  Something you love, something you have an interest in, something wherein you could contribute something of value to the world.  (You can always adjust course later.)

• START connecting with successful people who can help you.
• START researching the marketability of your best idea.
• START learning the internet technology that will broadcast your message to the world.
• START reading the book that will affect your bottom line.
• START thinking about and writing out your goals for next year.

Any day this week will be a good day to start…  Monday, Thursday, Saturday.

Any day.  Just avoid “Someday.”

“You may delay, but time will not. “ – Benjamin Franklin

QUESTION: What are YOU going to start?  Leave a comment.

The wrong question to be asking is “how do I get started”?

Anyone can start anything.

Getting on the bike and rounding out a couple of revolutions was a piece of cake.  Finding your balance and keeping the thing going was another skill unto itself.

It’s the same in building a successful set of income streams on the internet.

You can pick a niche, find a market, put up a web site, all very quickly, but what is going to keep you going with your idea six months from now, two years from now, five years from now?

The answer is passion.

Passion is the key.  I always start with getting clarity at the level of one’s passion when working with clients.  It’s the fuel that will drive your business long into the future.  It’s the fuel that will get you through the dips and inevitable frustrations that come with building any business.  Passion is the fuel that will maintain a fire in your soul for your unique message and will get you through the learning curve of delivering that message in an online world.

• Passion will aid creativity
• Passion will maintain authenticity
• Passion will communicate effectively
• Passion will attract community
• Passion will insure longevity

Before you buy another make-money-online system, get clear on what drives YOU, because that is what will ultimately drive your business and guarantee your success in achieving the Untethered Life.

Question:  What is your life’s passion?

I’m going to show you an amazing online tool in a minute that will help you with this, but first, let’s hear some PPP’s (pretty poor pitches)…

“I’m a life coach.”
“I’m a consultant.”
“I’m in sales.”

Terrible.

“I’m-a-fill-in-the-blank” is a lousy pitch, unless your a cop in uniform arriving at the robbery in progress. Otherwise, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because it doesn’t say anything. Not only does it not arouse interest, it doesn’t communicate any benefits to the listener.

Remember, people don’t really care what you do — only that you can solve their problem.

I’ve been working heavily with two of my current clients on their “who and do what” statements lately. Rather than go into HOW to arrive at a solid “elevator speech” about what you do, I’ll just direct you to a great online tool.

In a few minutes from now, you can know exactly what you would say. Check it out.

Go to 15SecondPitch.com and click on “create your pitch” on the left.

Just put in your info, it will spit out your pitch. Incredible.

Get your pitch problem solved and memorize the results. It might just result in your having an additional few clients/customers over the next thirty days.

As we continue to leverage the power of the internet to build our businesses, we don’t want any proverbial babies thrown out with any proverbial bathwater.

There are two programs offered by Google whose titles tend toward confusion as to which is which, Google Adsense and Google Adwords. Kevin’s article actually meant to refer to Adsense though he used the word Adwords.

And in light of that understanding, his admonition should be heeded that we would be wise to consider carefully before mucking-up our web sites with strips of Google Ads only to be compensated with pocket change for comprising our online “first impression.”

But the Google Adwords program is actually very different from Adsense and I highly recommend you consider using it. When we look at the difference between the two, you will see why.

Adwords is actually the advertising program through which people like you or me can buy classified ad space from Google. Those ads can run on Google’s search engine results site (they show up on the right hand side under “sponsored results”) on their partners’ sites like another search engine (AOL, for example) or on webmaster/publisher pages — the content network.

The Adsense program, however, refers to the program that web site publishers sign up for in order to run a set of those Google ads on their site. Yes, those ads are Adwords, but the publisher program is Adsense, so on the host pages they’re called “Adsense” ads.

In other words, Adsense is the contextual ad program running on people’s pages where you are seeing them. Web site owners do NOT pay to have Adsense ads display on their own pages; rather, Google pays money to THEM for each click originating from their pages.

Sounds great, doesn’t it? Set it and forget and watch the bucks roll in. But Kevin is right. Very few people make any noteworthy amounts of bucks from Adsense, though their pages may be smattered with it to the point of being almost unreadable. Google is paying them coffee money (7-11 coffee, that is) to wallpaper with ads their otherwise decent site. It’s not a bad idea in every case. Just see it for what it is and consider what your main site is designed to do.

However, let’s revisit Adwords for a moment. This program could be the key to greatly — almost immediately — increase traffic to your site.

Here’s how it works: You essentially create an account, research keyword phrases around your target market that will trigger your ad, insert your advertisement, pick the maximum amount you are willing to pay per click on your ad and then submit your credit card.

Your advertisement will then go live once the credit card is approved. Every time someone clicks on your ad, Google bills your account. Every couple of weeks or when your bill reaches a certain amount, Google will charge your credit card. Adwords is a form of pay-per-click advertising.

Consider the following perks:

• You choose the keyword phrases that have to be entered into the search engines that trigger your ad.
• You can choose hundreds of very specific phrases specialized to your niche at a very affordable (and controllable!) cost.
• You can cap your monthly spending (as little as $50 per month).
• You only pay if someone clicks on your ad.
• You can actually use the program to do market research without spending a dime.

I want to camp briefly on that last one. This month, Google surprised the internet marketing community and made market research a whole lot cheaper and easier. (You should look into the following, even if you dont plan to do an Adwords campaign.)

Google is now releasing actual search volume numbers with each key word phrase.

This is important because search volume data is extremely valuable information when determining what your particular market is looking for. Knowing how many people are searching for various keyword phrases relating to our products and services helps us determine the potential effectiveness of those phrases and whether or not to use those keyword phrases in our Google Adwords campaign.

Before this new upgrade to the Adwords program, Google only showed you a colored bar to simply give a general idea of how often any given search phrase was being used. In order to get actual volume numbers, advertisers like you and I had to go to other providers such as Nichebot or Wordtracker and plunk down some money to get the data — and even then, the accuracy of the numbers from those providers has always been in question.

But now, with the world’s largest search engine showing us their own numbers, we can go directly to Google and do all our market research, discovering actual numbers of searches done on any particular word or phrase.

And the research is free. That, quite frankly, rocks.

Adsense? Don’t bother. Adwords? Get educated on it, leverage it to drive traffic to your main site and make some money — through your products and services.

A recession is defined as “a period of general economic decline; specifically, a decline in GDP for two or more consecutive quarters.”

But when the country enters a recession, does that dictate that I enter one personally? Am I required to suffer declines for two consecutive quarters in my personal income just because the national economy does? What economic law says that I am required to restrict implementation of any new ideas that may contribute to the economic growth of myself and my family over the next two quarters?

Let the whiners take recession personally; they are at the mercy of the larger economy because they choose to be. They passively ride the economic waves while refusing to believe in the existence of oars–when people like you and me use them every day.

Turn off the television and listen up: the U.S. enjoys a $14 trillion economy. If it drops to $13 trillion and you need $200,000 to support your fully mobile, philanthropic, untethered lifestyle, that’s 0.000001538% of the total economy. You only need to creatively bring 0.000001538% of total economic value to the table to dip out your desired share. Is that unreasonable? And if you want to even it up next year and dip out 0.000002%, you’ll wind up at $260,000.

So if our economy shrinks, don’t take it personally.

After a conversation with my parents about the good ‘ol days, I would be wishing I had grown up in the age of Chevy “Hot Rods” and poodle skirts. After a conversation with grandpa about the good ‘ol days, I would swear that I was born in the wrong generation. Simple living, simple farming and a whole lot of fishin’ in the crik would have been the right life.

I often thought that those really would have been the good ‘ol days when you could get Ford or McDonald’s stock for just a few bucks a share, if they had just bought some. If they had only knew the opportunity.

They really were living in the good ‘ol days but they didn’t even know it then.

And therein lies my point.

For us, THESE are the “good ‘ol days.” The days that we’ll be talking about forty years from now.

These are the good ‘ol days. Consider it. These are the days that are:

• The transition era between the Industrial Age and the Information Age
• The days when the internet is so young that the Everyman can leverage it to dominate markets he finds, or even creates, himself
• The narrow strip of time when we can break free from locations and live anywhere for the first time without sacrificing income
• The days where there is an explosion of untapped markets literally around the world that can be reached for the first time through the click of a mouse
• All of the above, while we work our passion through a portable device as small as a composition notebook
• The days when gas was only $4 per gallon.

Don’t miss the good ‘ol days. You just might be in them.

Our Newly Updated Coaching Options

Here’s to good jazz and having a great (and growing?) niche!

The most entertaining young big band & vocal jazz act in the country was ours for the evening last Sunday night at the beautiful, under-the-stars venue, Chastain Park Amphitheater in Atlanta, Georgia.  The act was Harry Connick, Jr. and his big band orchestra.

Even more recently, last night we took another entertainment turn and had an evening with the incredibly funny standup, Sinbad, at the recently restored historic Tennessee Theater in downtown Knoxville.

A first quality entertainment experience on both counts, and an exemplary lesson in niching as well.

I’ve been a Harry Connick fan for years.  We go to see him when we can and we always have great seats.  Totally mesmerizing is this man’s talent on display.  His piano talents are second to none in classic jazz and his vocals are as ever-rich as Sinatra or Bennett.  We’ve never left a concert without being totally impressed.

Maybe you’ve noticed that Connick occasionally acts in film.  He does a so-so job.  Notably, in concert and on Letterman or Leno, you’ll find him above average in wit and humor.  But he’s no comedian. See him live and you learn real quick what his apex talent is — performing good jazz.

And not just any jazz.  He narrows even more.

Connick in the 90′s single-handedly revived the old standards of Big Band jazz and the vocals made popular by the crooners of the 40′s and 50′s for a new generation.

Not only are there a very few who are doing it these days… NOBODY does it like him.  Solid baritone vocals, hands-too-fast-to-see piano and a big band playing his own arrangements form a mix that you can’t find just anywhere.

And his fans can’t get enough.  He played the Chastain Park Amphitheatre two nights back to back to packed crowds.

Because he’s the best in his niche.

Sinbad.  Now, Sinbad might be able to dance, but he didn’t dance.  He might be able to sing, but he didn’t sing.  He may even have a great golf swing, he didn’t even go there.

What he did do was keep a full auditorium doubled over in stitches FOR TWO AND A HALF HOURS.

And get this:  no cursing, no vulgarity.  Talk about a niche!  Hilarity with a clean conscience.

When it comes to creative, black-style, clean comedy, outside one or two others (including his mentor, Bill Cosby), he’s the best.

Some have rumored that his career is virtually over.  I don’t know where this opinion comes from.  He’s clearly doing what he loves and what he’s excellent at and people are paying $50-a-pop for it.

And if they are like me, those fans would have gladly been comfortable recommending the experience to their parents (a rare option concerning modern comic acts), and most of their friends and been willing to pay full price again to go back NEXT WEEK with some of those people just to watch them watch him.

This was more than good entertainment.  It was an exercise in learning to niche well.  Get narrow and get excellent and get ready for success.

Last month, we talked about taking action on your Kingdom-oriented, God-glorifying goals and ideas. Perhaps you finally stopped shouting “aim!” and finally said, “fire!” If I know anything about this process, I know that you likely faced…

• An obstacle
• Disillusionment
• Self-doubt
• Naysayers
• Overwhelm
• The tyranny of “urgent” matters unrelated to your idea or goal

Don’t be discouraged. Understand that as soon you identify a goal, you create the obstacles.

If there are no obstacles in your path its because you aren’t going anywhere! The fact that you met some sort of opposition is simply a sign that you’ve challenged your status quo! Congratulations!

There’s a myth among Christians that if something is not going smoothly or easily then God is likely not involved in it.

Not so.

The Bible is replete with examples of men who had a God-spoke-to-me-audibly experience yet immediately endured beatings, arrests, political or religious antagonism, logistical problems, etc. in striving to achieve what God had laid out.

The best things in life — especially godly things — don’t come easily. A great marriage, an above-average income, a useful skill, or even intimacy with God — all good things — have obstacles attempting to block their achievement. You’ll be a lot less discouraged and far more productive when you realize this is just part of the process.

You probably don’t remember, but one of the first and hardest goals you set was learning to walk. That certainly didn’t come easily.

There were stumblings and “ouches” and surrenders to gravity, but you didn’t give up. You kept trying in spite of obstacles until you got it. (I wonder why we tend to lose that kind of tenacity as we grow older?)

Now look at all the benefits that your walking skills have brought to your life and to the lives of those you love. Aren’t you glad you hung in there?

Give yourself time and give yourself a break but don’t just give up. Stay in the game until it’s over. Don’t take your ball and go home at the first sign of difficulty.

You need to stay open to wisdom and making needed modifications, but don’t just quit.

See each obstacle as a confirmation that the idea or goal is worthy of being made a reality. It’s valuable because it’s going to cost you something. Valuable means it’s costly. Just determine to pay the price.

And remember, the bigger the idea or goal, the bigger the obstacles, therefore, the greater the cost. It’s going to require a bigger resolve on your part and a greater draw from God’s (limitless) resources on His part for that thing to become manifest.

So resolve to pay the price — in time, planning, effort, resources, education — no matter the obstacles.

In the Scriptures, a literal translation of Jesus’ words would be, “Ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking, seek and keep on seeking…” That’s a good Word for us. Keep on “keeping on.”

The farmer keeps tilling, planting, weeding and working because he can operate with a reliable piece of knowledge as to where the process leads. That knowledge? That harvest will come. It always does.