When my life partner asks for something, all my affiliate business priorities go down the stack.
Since last week, I’m between two contracts in my day job. This means, I was more often at home despite I had to work some hours helping my employer, a consulting company in engineering, to find new clients.
My partner is very good for everything that relates to organization. She’s a gymnast coach and has to work on an irregular schedule so managing her time efficiently is a skill she must have.
You can imagine that when she sees me sitting at my laptop, writing my blog, is for her comparable to procrastination. In no time she manages to find me another, more serious, more useful activity.
Today I had to put the hat of a woodworker to build three Christmas trees made of 2×6 pine planks, like on the reel she saw on Facebook.
“You build me this! 😍”, she said with an enthusiastic tone on messenger, before adding: “It would be super nice outside, we could do 3!”🤦♂️
Yeah right! Have you ever tried, just one time, to reproduce what the folks are crafting in a reel video? Leave me a comment I would love to hear about this. 😒
On the video, we see a professional woodworker assembling the parts of what will look like a Christmas tree. Here is the link if you want to see what I mean: Simple 2×6 Christmas TREE.
Note that it’s not limited only to this link though. We see the same trending model everywhere on social media actually.
My wife is right, it looks pretty simple to make.
In this video, everything is so neat and perfect. “So where is the bug”, asking myself suspiciously.
The video starts with the parts freshly cut at laser tight precision and, we can bet, with all the right angles already well defined. We see a man, probably a professional woodworker, assembling the parts together.
He drills holes, torque screws, and all the wooden parts are fitting wonderfully with each others. Then we see him puts some green paint on his creation and the decorative lights.
Voilà! Easy does it.
The final product looks appealing and would of course do wonderfully in front of our porch.
I must say that I’m usually very suspicious when I’m presented with those kinds of step-by-step videos. By experience I know that real life tends to be a bit more complex and Murphy’s law is never far away.
With this project, mess with the apex angle and you’re screwed.
Faced to my apprehensions, my partner found a plan on Facebook that she also discretely sent to me via messenger.
This time, well, this time it was like I’ve no choice. 😄 When you are in a relationship with someone you love for many years, this is something your can feel right away, even if it’s not told openly.
Because I have my ego and don’t want to disappoint her – fearing a significant drop in my quality of life – I decided to start the project.
This afternoon I went to buy four, 8 feet tall, pine wood planks with a box of 3 inches screws – at second thought, 2 1/2 inches screws would had been OK for this project.
Back home, I started immediately.
My wife left for the cinema with my daughter and her friend so I thought this could be a good surprise for her when she’ll come back.
My miter saw was stored at the back of my shed, which is cluttered by winter tires, my land mower, 6 bicycles, garden material – well, you see the catch.
So my next task was to venture inside, hence making a path for myself and for the miter saw – which is installed on a mobile bench station – in order to take it out of the shed. This wasn’t an easy task, but encouraged by the use of some typical bad French-Canadian words, I succeeded at getting the thing out.
Next, I needed to unfold and install the bench station on its legs. After everything was set and stabilized, I had to figure out how to prepare the saw, because it was in a configuration for storage and a long time has passed since I used it.
I took some time to prepare the place and activate the different functionalities of the saw so I can use it safely.
I had to find an electric cord extension long enough to reach the power outlet located some 50 feet away on the side of the house. So I went back in the shed trying to find that f.. power cord, again using a series of well-known bad French-Canadian words for motivation, my watch congratulating me for doing physical activity. 🎉
I came across my winter tires reminding me that winter is coming soon and changing my four season tires for these ones is something I must do before next week. “Maybe I should get them out of the shed now”, telling myself. “This can wait”, answering without much conviction.
After I found my power cord- which wasn’t in the shed but at a storage location near my pool, 😒 I thought I was ready to go but the saw wasn’t responding to my command.
It took me some time, but once I figured out there was no power from the cord, I went back on my steps, up to the electrical outlet on the wall, to realize it was in a reset state and that I needed to push the little reset button to reactivate the power. This done, I went back at the saw and tried again.
I cut my first part.
Even if I measured it before, the process of cutting at angle wasn’t something I’m very familiar with so I took too much on the length. I put that part on the side for the moment and try again with another until I learned to do it right.
One thing you can easily do wrong is by making a mistake on the slope direction of your cut. I managed to make it right verifying twice before I made the cut with the saw.
It took me about 2 1/2 hours to cut all the parts this afternoon, but I’m happy with the job done.
Now the fun will be to assemble everything tomorrow. It was 16h15, I was cold and the sun went down. I cleaned everything, put back the saw in the shed, while secretly hopping that I will not have to take it out again soon.
I pray for my parts to have angles that match and correct lengths so the results will look like in the video.
Once she was back, I was proud to say to my loved one that I worked on her Christmas tree project. She asked me if I have completed the entire assembly, including the paint, because she was looking forward to decorate.
I said no, that I just had time to cut the parts. She replied : “You are always slow at doing these kind of crafting project”.
ARRRG! 😡 I hate those do-it-yourself crafting reels! You see why?
They always look easy, like if everyone could do it quickly but what everyone doesn’t understand is that everything is far-fetched, cleaned and edited. It’s also often done by a pro which has countless hours of doing these kinds of projects.
In my case I had the chance to bank on my miter saw which I don’t use often. But what if I didn’t have this tool in first place? With a total of 48 angles to cut, I would have found myself in serious trouble.
Next project I have on my list is to build a nice wood enclosure where we can hide the garbage on the side of the house, with a nice cover of flowers.
Yes, you guessed it! This was seen in another Facebook reel.
So, why am I telling you all this?
Because I don’t want you to make the mistake of believing blindly, without a critical mindset, what you see on videos.
For example, when you go through a video from someone telling he made 450K in 8 months with digital marketing, ask yourself if this makes sense. If it’s too good to be true, than it probably is.
People able to achieve those results, are usually experts in their domain. Of course, as seen by the average person who watched the videos, it will look easy to do. The fact is, for the creator of the video, well, it is. However, what you don’t know is all the years of persistence he spent trying here an there, building his audience and developing his skills. Usually these people don’t start from scratch like you and me.
But they won’t tell you in a video. They want you to think it’s done easily and effortlessly because they know most people are in their comfort zone and they aren’t warmed up to take the plunge.
My mentor Dean Holland, started Affiliate Marketing in 2004 accumulating debts and shame. It was only until late 2008 that he made his first commission, hence proving to himself he could make money with affiliate marketing. Growing in confidence, he was able to quit his job in 2009 to dedicate all the his time to his business. Today, he’s responsible for selling over 10 millions dollars of products online.
We all start somewhere. Hard work with persistence will always be required to make progress before they pay. Coupled this with patience and you’re on the road to meet with success.
Things become easier as you gain in skills, and skills develop with time and practice. It is absolutely normal to take time before being good at doing something.
Knowledge is power, but there’s an effort to make in order to acquire a knowledge.
Don’t follow blindly the guy on the video, chances are you won’t be able to reproduce exactly what he does, in the same time, the first time.
He’s an expert, not you.
I’m not telling you that all people in these videos are telling lies. Most digital/affiliate marketers are making good content and selling good courses.
It’s just that I don’t want you to start anything without having at least the proper mindset.
Don’t be falsely engaged on the road of easiness and quick money. Instead, be armed with patience and the knowledge that you will have to work with all your seriousness, with persistence, and for the extended period of time required to have your first commission and over.
Don’t expect any results before you have acquired the necessary skills. Be prepared to work for months and years before you could realize an income.
This is not my intention to discourage anyone here. But by having an entrepreneur’s mindset, I believe you will be better armed to face the reality and pursue the road to your dreams than someone who enter a course having in mind he will make quick money easily without any effort because he don’t want to start out of his comfort zone.
I see too many people daily on TikTok commenting “How to start” on videos such as, “I made 10K in a month with digital marketing”, hoping of doing the same after they subscribed to that course or program.
Because it looks easy.
But I tell you most of these people will fail at replicating what they saw and they will quit because they were badly prepared. Their mindset is not tuned for the road of success.
The 10 laws of success will teach you all this. Learn them all, put them in your backpack, and you’ll be prepared for the road of success.
Here they are below.
Stick these on your fridge so you can see them everyday.
You won’t take a trip to New York city without first having planned your visit right?
So don’t start your affiliate journey without first knowing the laws of success.
Martin
P.S.
Success starts with the “Iceberg Effect” book. Grab your copy here. 😉
The 10 Laws of Success
- Find the courage to start
- Be persistent and patient
- Knowledge is power
- Prioritize your business
- Change your circle and life
- Find your WHY
- Have clearly defined goal
- Work hard
- Take personal responsibilities
- Tomorrow never comes
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