One of the most important keys to success is imagination. It’s actually closing your eyes and seeing yourself there. Allowing yourself to stay in the moment & to take in every aspect of what your goal feels like. This may sound like wishy-washy pseudo science – but in reality it is one of the main characteristics successful people in all fields share. They can literally see themselves reaching their goals.

P.S. The picture will make sense at the end of the post – and you’ll probably laugh, or cry.

How to Set & Reach Your Goals

Setting a goal may seem basic but it’s surprisingly overlooked by people who strive for success. If you can make it through these 5 steps when setting your goals and dreaming about your future I promise your chances of actually achieving them are 1000 times better.

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I’ve been working on the new and improved Escaping the 9 to 5 site & design for the last month now. I’m in the last throws of the process but I cannot for the life of me decide on a color scheme! So I’m coming to you – my lovely escapees – to ask for your help & which color scheme you think is best. The comments on Facebook where completely split down the middle so hopefully this will help!

Number 1.

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First off this post on finding the best keywords for your website, blog, etc is very different for me, since I normally post on entrepreneur ideas & how to start businesses. But it is EPICALLY important if you are involved online, which you should be at the very least with a blog platform for personal branding.

This post comes from 2 years of me fumbling around when it comes to choosing keywords and finding the best keywords that serve my niche. In the last 3 months I’ve started to study keyword research and have finally gotten the ‘tools’ needed for choosing the best keywords for my websites. I decided to share them because I would have given my left foot for this information, in an easy “Maren Proof”* formula two years ago.

The “Maren Proof” Guide to Finding Your Best Keywords

1. First, my lovelies, we must decide WHAT your website/blog is aiming for. Are you trying to sell tomato by products or build a personal branding platform that will push your public speaking career to the next level. Write out, in a sentence or two, the point of your blog and then try to find someone else to read it.

If it makes sense to them – good. If it doesn’t, it’s back to the drawing board. An example: Escaping the 9 to 5 is a blog dedicated to teaching people how to start a business that will change their life.

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I’m not an internet marketer and I certainly don’t consider myself anything close to a pro blogger either. I am most definitely not in the business of making money online, by teaching people how to make money online.

…And please don’t take offense if you are in that business – this is my mantra – you don’t have to dig it – it’s just to help solidify the tribe I’m part of.

That being said here are a few things that I am (and you may be too):

• I’m ridiculously passionate about start ups & building businesses.
• I love the idea of making money online & off mobile entrepreneur style (i.e. you aren’t tied down to a brick & mortar location 24/7).
• I believe in online businesses that fatten your wallet, provide great value to others and help you build a lifestyle where you enjoy more freedom and fulfillment – no snake oil salesman!
• I like the idea of passive income & only working a 4 hour work week… but I love the idea of working really hard for a few years to build a business that becomes the next Zappos, SEObook.com or Groupon.

You may think more like me, or you may not. But the point is this is a very helpful exercise you should do with yourself at least every 6 months. It helps you stand out from the crowd, differentiate yourself from your competition &  figure out what you really love and what you have just fallen into.

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I developed a serious entrepreneurial crush* on Brian Sher, while reading his book What Rich People Know & Desperately Want to Keep Secret. When I was first given this book I kind of blew it off because the title to me seemed over the top, then I did a little bit of research on Brain and realized he was the real deal.

Brian got out of college & started consulting for thousands of bucks a pop  because he was confident enough to put an ad in the paper, even with no experience. He turned an upstart business into a multimillion dollar enterprise, he has written several books and has been involved with a bevvy of successful business ventures. When I started reading his book, I could put it down – in a 6 hour period I had finished the whole thing and was eager for more.

This interview is a true jewel, Brian opens up and talks about strategies and steps to take you from zero to 60. His style and wit is entertaining and his business savvy is unrivaled. If you take one step towards building the business of your dreams this week, make it listening to this interview – it will rock your world.

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At the age of  25 and I feel like I’ve just started my coming of age as a person and as an entrepreneur. Many start up junkies and super successful E’s have sold there first business by 25 and made millions – but me, I was the girl that didn’t go on a single date until my freshman year of college – so it makes sense that I’m a late bloomer in other things as well.

The reason I started thinking about my late-bloomer-hood is because I spent the weekend in LA with clients (for www.OracleLaunch.com). I got to stay at the oh so nice Roosevelt hotel, meet Jay Leno and party with some neat people from the entertainment industry at Drais in Hollywood.

It was fun, the last day I was there I lay floating in the pool staring up at the palm trees. I kept thinking back to my youth as a nerdy, shy, socially akward girl of 18 and thinking how far I have come. It’s taken too long (in my mind) for me to finally feel confident in my own skin and be at the place where I can pursue my dreams without fear.

I wrote this post as a letter to my younger self,  a short guide to getting to where I am today and hopefully if you are struggling at all in your entrepreneurial journey it’ll help reboot your confidence and put you on the fast lane to success and eventual freedom.

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Fudge man. That is all I can say. So in all my wisdom, I decided to change all my categories on Escapingthe9to5.com to start moving towards the site update I’ll soon be implementing – what I didn’t know was that in doing this I messed up tweetmeme and the facebook share plugin so EVER post reset to zero and I think my links are all broken now!

FUDGE!!!

But, what can you do, when my virtual assistants (I heart them!) come in later today I’ll be on Skype sobbing and they’ll come up with some kind of ingenious plan, because they’re brilliant – while I on the other hand should never be let near my websites without adult supervision.

NEXT MATTER OF BUSINESS…

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This is an interview with Shane Mac of Gist.com it’s helpful for people who are in the middle of starting up a business (as Shane gives great start up tips) and also for those who want to learn how to better use their social network to get ahead. Short, sweet and to the point this interview will motivate you to start networking better and to energize your business venture!

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I once went to school with a girl whose name was Younique, I always wondered if her parents were just intentionally cruel or actually thought that was an rapturous name (apologies in advance to all the youniques in the audience). That’s besides the point, but it’s a nice intro to this post. So do you want to know the number 1 way to build a successful business?

BE UNIQUE

This may seem like old news but hold your horses, you aren’t hearing me. What you think is unique about your business is probably not – hate to break it to you loves. Here is how you can skip years of agony and boredom being stuck in the “middle” and instead sky rocket your success by becoming very, very niche & very, very unique.

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One of the most influential books I’ve read in a while has been How to be Rich & Happy by John P. Strelecky and Tim Brownson. At first I judged this book by it’s cover and thought “what kind of title is how to be rich and happy”… but after a few pages I was a fan and when the book was finished I could easily say it had rocked my world. The promise of how to be rich and happy is truly fulfilled by the amazing information within the book, it’ll inspire, invigorate and catapult you into a more successful life.

John, a best selling author, and Tim, a life coach and thought leader, were both kind enough to come on with me and share their thoughts on how as an entrepreneur we can live rich and happy lives too.

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