When we first started sending out our weekly email it went to seven people.
Of those seven, three were our own email accounts and one was our Mom.
So we really only had three people on the list.
That week we sat down and wrote an article about how to find good properties.
We put the article on one of our websites and then we emailed it to all three people who had signed up for our email.
The next week we did it again.
That week, I think we had a total of nine people on our email list.
We rinsed and repeated, week in and week out.
Then after a few months, we crossed over 100 people on our email list.
Then after a few more months we had the 500th person on our email list
Then 1,000.
Then 2,000.
Then we crossed 5,000.
Then we crossed 10,000.
And it's been growing even larger, and faster.
Sometimes we don't feel like writing an article or sending out the email.
And sometimes we're so busy it's hard to fit it into the schedule.
But each week we sit down and send it out.
We recently had a "social media guru" tell us that we don't need to write regular blog posts or send out emails regularly, you only have to do it "when you feel like you have something to say."
That advice is pure hogwash.
That's like saying you don't have to show up for work every day, you just have to show up "when you feel like it."
Let's not make any illusions about how creating income for yourself works.
You make money by working.
We recently had the privilege to meet and chat with an author who had written and published 28 novels, and he's writing his next one right now.
His most passionate advice around the "writing business" was this:
Writers write. And they write every day.
He told us that since he was 14 years old, he has written at least one page every single day of his life (unless he was physically sick).
I don't know how old he is today but I'd guess he's over 70 years old.
That's a lot of writing.
He also told us that on many days he doesn't feel like writing, but he sits down and writes anyway.
And that the stuff he writes on those days may not be very good, but there may be a single sentence that triggers an idea that develops into the next several chapters.
He also shared that he enjoys watching the morning news on television.
But on the days he's travelling and needs to leave the house early, he skips his favourite morning activity to make sure he squeezes in some writing time.
He's a writer, so he writes.
Our father was a drywaller for many years. He threw up drywall every day he had that job, six days a week.
Hot or cold, sick or tired.
Drywallers drywall.
Where are we going with this?
Don't wait until you have all the answers for your next venture.
Don't wait until you know exactly how your business will be built.
Don't wait until everything is "perfect" before you begin.
Start.
Start today.
What activities can you do, every week, without fail, that will get you closer to your goals?
For us, it was collecting email addresses and trying our very best to share good ideas and thoughts and articles in return.
Today one of the biggest assets we have in our business is our email list.
It started with the little habit of writing one article every week.
We slowly began to earn people's trust and our business grew.
It took years to build it into something that generated any meaningful results for us, but it was worth it.
Our little list that started with three people on it, has now been responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenues to us, perhaps millions.
Collecting email addresses in one habit we highly recommend. Get started today.
Little habits compound into huge results.
What are your little daily habits?
Are they producing anything for you?
No?
Then choose better habits.
Until next time... Your Life! Your Terms!
Awesome article as usual guys. I agree, there are days you don't want to do anything. Those are the days you need to push through otherwise 1 day turns into 2 days etc. One piece of advice I heard from an instructor was to do at least 1 little thing to further your business everyday! It might only be handing out one business card, but do something. It helps me anyway.