Unexpected Positive Outcomes

One thing I’m a big believer in is that doing the right things on a consistent basis leads to good results.  It may take time, probably longer than you thought originally, but if you put in the effort and focus then you’ll give yourself the maximum chance of success.

This is something that I talk about in these emails a fair bit.  In my coaching programs and information products, this is a consistent theme.

Work Hard, No Shortcuts

When I was looking at putting together Casual Marketer in late 2015, I had a couple ideas for some lead magnets that I’d been working on but they kind of weren’t going anywhere.  They were good ideas, but I wasn’t particularly enthused about creating them.

As the year dwindled on and I decided that I really needed to get cracking, I knuckled down and started fleshing out an idea for creating a cheat sheet of some of the “rules” that I follow in my own business online.

When I looked at the list I realised I had way more than I needed for a lead magnet, so I decided to just start writing over my Christmas break and see what happened.

By mid-afternoon on the first day of writing, I knew that this set of rules was going to be a book.  I set myself a deadline of finishing before the end of 2015 (it was Boxing Day) and I got stuck in.

I finished the book on New Year’s Eve.

Creating a book was an unexpected positive outcome.  I’d always wanted to write a book, I knew I could do it, but I just hadn’t set the goal properly for myself.  I’d tinkered with book ideas in the past, but this one started out as taking an idea and putting the work in.  Having a book at the end was awesome.

You Do The Work, Good Things Happen

A few weeks later I was chatting with my friend Scott Duffy on Skype and the topic of the book came up.  He suggested that I publish it properly and get it printed like a real book.

I’d never really thought of doing that.  I’d originally decided that I was going to give the book to subscribers but I was going to do a pretty low-end ghetto version because it was “achievable”.  In fact, in early January I had a copy printed up and bound at my local print shop and I posted a photo online – I thought I was done.

But Scott is a published author and what he was saying made sense.  When smart people with experience give me advice, I listen.  I learned at a very young age that you should listen to people who’ve travelled down the path ahead of you because they know where you’re trying to get to.

I took Scott’s advice and started looking into self-publishing.  Surprisingly, it was considerably more affordable than I had ever imagined, even in low volumes and not only was it inexpensive, it seemed reasonably easy to do.  I was convinced that this was going to happen.

Things Worth Doing Are Hard

Like everything worth doing in life, it was way more difficult than I had originally anticipated.  We started by having to reformat the book, get cover art made, do a layout and a whole bunch of other stuff that I’d not considered.  The funny thing is, it’s actually a fairly easy process, it’s just a bit complicated.

Slight tangent for a second.

To me, this is the power of the internet delivering an unexpected positive outcome.  Imagine thirty years ago sitting down for less than a week, smashing out a book and then deciding to self-publish it in paperback form in low volume print runs?  That would have seemed like a ridiculous notion in 1986.

Then take that one step further, imagine doing the WHOLE THING yourself from the layout to the cover design with the process culminating in you pressing three or four buttons and two weeks later for the less than the price of pizza, your book turns up at your house.

The internet promised the democratisation of publishing content and that’s the manifestation of that promise in all its glory.

Positive Results Come From Consistent Effort

Sorry I got lost there, back to putting the book together, it was a little harder than we thought, but we kept at it… For three months.  A book that took less than six days to write took over three months to get to a point where we could send it to the printers, but we got there and last weekend I pushed the submit button and uploaded it.

The digital proof came back yesterday as accepted and I hit the order button for my physical proof copy.  In my excitement, I ordered an overnight printing and next day delivery on the Friday before a long weekend, so it probably won’t arrive until Wednesday.  Here’s something that amazed me, to have the book printed overnight and delivered a day later cost me the princely additional sum of $12 – how crazy is that?!?

Again, a simple conversation led to a friend giving me some advice and by the middle of next week, I will have my very own paperback book in my hands.

Unexpected positive outcomes.

The crux of this is really just about being willing to put the effort into something and listening to good advice.  When you do those things, good things will happen for you.  Notice I said “for you” and not “to you” – this isn’t about some lazy manifestation nonsense where you wish for something or visualise it, I’m talking about doing the work and getting the result you deserve.

Hard Work Pays Off

The one thing I absolutely believe in is that it doesn’t matter what disadvantages you have, you can always improve your situation by working harder.  We live in an age where everyone is trying to find a “hack” or a “shortcut” to skip that hard work part, but the reality is, doing the hard work is what generates the unexpected positive outcomes.

Now, I know I’m going to be asked, “how do I get the book?”  This first release is a special edition only available to Casual Marketer Newsletter Subscribers.  When you join the newsletter you actually get the book as part of your subscription as my way of saying thank you but also to indoctrinate you into my world.

Leave a Comment