How to Be Successful in Life and in Business - principles that carry to any age and any business.

Focus. A lot of successful people flit from thing to thing, but they’re STRONG in a lot of the things I’ll mention after this point. If you struggle with focus, you’ll most likely struggle with seeing things through to completion. Focused thinking helps you clarify what you want. This makes it easier to identify priorities and eliminate distractions. Focusing helps you not waste time, money, effort, etc. Being distracted and multitasking dilutes energy! Focus concentrates that energy on completing high-value tasks. Focus is what Brian Tracy was talking about when he mentioned deep thinking. Success often requires mastering complex skills or solving challenging problems, and the best way to tackle those sorts of things is through deep thinking and deep working. You’ll know when you get there. You’ll be in a state of undistracted, high-concentration effort. Focus also allows you to handle setbacks appropriately. You can better adjust for them, based on their level of importance, if you’ve been heavily involved in the work. You’ll be better able to maintain momentum when challenges pop up.

Delay gratification. Self-control is a MUST if you want to be successful! Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation of immediate rewards in favor of greater benefits in the future. This skill is a cornerstone of achieving success because it fosters discipline, patience, and long-term thinking. By delaying gratification, individuals can focus on meaningful goals, invest in self-improvement, and make choices that yield lasting results rather than short-lived satisfaction.

Boundaries. Boundaries are essential for achieving success because they protect your time, energy, and focus, allowing you to prioritize your goals without unnecessary distractions or burnout. By setting clear limits on how much you give to others or to activities that don't align with your objectives, you create space for intentional effort toward your ambitions.

Learn from failure. Learning from failure is a critical component of achieving success because it turns setbacks into opportunities for growth. Failure provides valuable feedback, revealing what doesn’t work and highlighting areas for improvement. By analyzing mistakes and adjusting strategies, you build resilience, adaptability, and a deeper understanding of how to achieve your goals.

Rather than being a roadblock, failure becomes a stepping stone when you approach it with a growth mindset. Many successful individuals credit their failures as pivotal moments that shaped their eventual achievements. Embracing failure as a learning experience fosters persistence, innovation, and the ability to navigate challenges more effectively on the path to success.

Don’t procrastinate. Unless that’s what works for you. I used to think I was a procrastinator. I’m not. I’m excellent at focusing, and I stick to the current project until it’s finished before starting the one I have a hard deadline for. I tend to approach everything with the same intense focus that can catch other people off guard and is sometimes intimidating and/or offputting.

Sunk-cost fallacy. Continuing to put time, money, or effort into something you’re committed to, even when it’s become clear that continuing is not in the best decision. Driven by a desire not to waste past investments of time, money, and effort, even when those investments aren’t recoverable. Past costs should have no bearing on future activity. If something is working, great—continue it. If it’s not working, don’t put more time or money into it!!! One caveat: sometimes people give up on something, saying it’s not working, when in reality, they haven’t done enough effort to tell people it exists. If you put time and effort into marketing and things still aren’t moving forward, have the courage to stop working on that thing.

Updates on Andrea’s life

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Is integrity important for leaders? Find out now!

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Integrity in business

What does integrity look like?

• Speaking truth at all times

• Representing situations and self accurately

• Acting the same in all situations, regardless of whether someone is watching

• Aligning actions with believes

• Making decisions based on what is right, not what is beneficial

• Taking responsibility for all actions and outcomes from actions, even when outcomes are negative

• Treating people fairly and with dignity—regardless of their status or relationship with you

• Courage: Willingness to make difficult choices, stand up for your beliefs, speak out against wrongdoing, regardless of professional risk

• Acknowledging mistakes and limitations—open to feedback and correction. Critical to maintain ethical behavior over timeWhy do we need integrity as leaders?

• Builds trust—consistency. Fosters open communication and teamwork

• People do what you do, as a leader

• Long-term success over short-term gains. Integrity leads to sustainable success

• Able to make fair and ethical decisions. Protects us from scandals and legal problems

• Your reputation! Act with integrity, and people will respect you in long-run.

• Helps maintain harmony in relationships. Being fair and impartial makes arguments easier to resolve

Areas where integrity might be at stake—tempted to set aside:

• Financial benefits. (Manipulating statements or tax stuff, cutting corners, half-butting things, basically :-D)

• Competition—where the competitor is doing well, we might be tempted to misrepresent selves and situations to keep up. Like, exaggerated claims, deceptive advertising, etc.

• Reducing costs in ways that compromise ethical standards. Similar to financial benefits, but doing things half-butt. Bypassing regulations and requirements because it would be too expensive to do something. Reducing pay for people who work with and for you without reducing your own pay, etc.

• Meeting deadlines—temptation to cut corners or try to hide issues just to go live on time.

• Choosing between a favorite person or an ethical situation. Favoring someone who isn’t pulling their weight because you like them.

Exciting stuff, right? Ha ha.

Rather than doing an official campaign to fund our IVF goals, I’ve decided do a big push on my exclusive boxed sets that contain all of my books, based on theme. Check it out here: https://mailchi.mp/e180d38e23b4/andrea-pearsons-works

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There are only three ways to grow a business.

First, GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Second: Increase average price. (Get customers to spend more on the thing you’re selling)

3rd: Increase frequency of purchase

I asked ChatGPT what the top ways to grow a business were. It gave me 13 ideas, but all of them fall under one of the things I just mentioned. Let’s take a look at them.

Understand Your Market: This falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Enhance Your Online Presence: Falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Build a Strong Brand: This falls under INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE and GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Optimize Your Sales Funnel: This falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Leverage Customer Feedback: This falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS and INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE.

Expand Your Offerings: This falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS and INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE.

Focus on Customer Retention: INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE. Customer retention is all about getting them to buy from you again.

Invest in Marketing and Advertising: This falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Build Strategic Partnerships: GET MORE CUSTOMERS

Improve Operational Efficiency: GET MORE CUSTOMERS.

Seek Funding: Falls under GET MORE CUSTOMERS because getting more money means finding more people. It can also apply to INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE because it might help you come up with more items to sell.

Monitor Key Metrics: This will help you GET MORE CUSTOMERS and INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE.

Adapt and Innovate: Change as the market changes. Stop trying to sell something that people don’t want to buy anymore. Or stop pushing something that no one wants. This will free you up to focus on the things that actually MAKE MONEY, like GET MORE CUSTOMERS and INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE.

And that’s all that ChatGPT mentioned. I’m surprised there’s no mention of raising prices in there. It’s a pretty basic way of growing a business. But that’s okay. :-D

Q&A:

Tommy: Hi, Andrea. A significant portion of my salary is going toward debt repayment today, and with rising interest rates, I find myself with little left to put into the emergency fund:D The little money I have left each month have to go toward editors and cover designers.So, here's my question - should I reduce my debt payments to the minimum until I've established a $1,000 emergency fund? And do you have any tips on how to do this? And this question is even more relevant when it comes to focusing in on paying off debt one at a time :D Again, thanks!

Angelina: You mentioned you would talk a little more about the book side of things for you. (I am a few episodes behind, so if it will come up just ignore this comment). But i was wondering if you'd like to talk a little more about productivity and the writing process. I mean how you outline your book, how in depth, how you prepare a writing session, how often you write and how much in what time. Just your overall process. I am highly interested in that field as I am trying to become an author myself. :)

Angelina: You mentioned why or why not it is beneficial to have an email sign up that asks them to confirm. The people in the zoom were not interested but I'd like to know why or why not one should choose that, if you could explain it. :3

Update on our situation:Work with clients going well—have been working on things for two clients. One is at 55 hours per week, the other is 2-3 hours. Finding that working more than full time makes it just as hard to write as being a mom full time. :-D There’s just no easy way to work on our passion projects. Luckily, our current situation is forcing me to work on books a bit more.IVF – IndieGoGo. Will be selling ebooks, etc.

How to Be More Decisive in Business

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What Is an Automation Sequence and Do I Need One? Live Recording and Q&A

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Can't Think Unless You're Moving?

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The Quality of THIS Determines Your Business Success

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