The Blog Of Greg Rollett

We all go through times when we are in the zone. Our business and our life is doing great. Good relationships, good income, great products, stelar customers, new beers on tap at the local pub, you know, everything in sync.

Then there are some ruts. The business dries up. Your relationships are stressed and the only beer on tap in PBR or something.

Why Do We Go Through Ups And Downs?

Here is one of my theories that I have really seen to be true over the past year. When I put the effort in to build relationships, check out the competition, talk to my customers - I do great business. Business picks up. I feel better. The wife is happier.

When I disappear I get a ton of work done, but I feel out of touch. I’m not sure what is going on. I don’t get to meet the new players. My traffic dives and my sales plummet.

In the middle of last year I changed a lot of things about the way I do business. I pretty much hibernated from the social media world, just popping up once in a while with a promotional post, but I stopped:

• commenting on blogs
• reading blogs (I actually deleted over 100 feeds and now have only 15 or so in the reader)
• getting Google Alerts on industry terms and some branding terms
• watching Twitter (more on this sometime later)
• answering HARO and other media request sites
• taking consulting and client requests

And while the world didn’t end, my businesses never went under and I wouldn’t say I’m unhappy, I just didn’t find myself motivated and at the top of my game.

In the past month or so I have slowly started getting back to my roots and things are opening up left and right:

• New opportunities (Young Entrepreneur Council, book deal, more customers, big product launch in the works, etc)
• More traffic (it’s amazing what happens to traffic numbers when you write good shit)
• More sales (in all products)
• More responsive email lists (which = $$)
• The list goes on and on…

Be Present

At the end of the day you need to become present. That doesn’t mean you need to immerse yourself in everything media. Far from it. In fact, the low information diet has really helped me get clear and stop reading the same ol same (10 tips to do something I don’t need to do).

What you need to do is keep your life on the pulse of what is going on in your life.

Relationships

Pay attention to your wife, girlfriend, boyfriend. Listen to them. Immerse yourself in their wants and needs. When you stop going through the motions and start making your life radical, you start to help not only yourself smile more and enjoy the time together, but your partner will be equally rewarded and cherish being in the moment.

Take a day trip. Jen and I are famous for day trips all around Florida. It doesn’t matter what we end up doing, we just get to enjoy time together. Even after 12 (or maybe 13) years we can still learn from each other and grow together to have the present day and the future we want.

Business

In your business you need to continue to grow within your market. Continue to look for competitors, partners, keywords, customer feedback and news to push yourself further in the marketplace. I find that when I go absent from my core markets (like the music industry), I miss so much it’s tough to keep up.

I am no longer striving to write 3 posts a week and a few guest posts and take on clients everyday, but I need to constantly see what is working, what isn’t, where the new technology is and how it impacts what I am teaching.

What I have done is find a few core players that I can talk to once a week or so and get the news I need and discuss ideas. It makes everything much easier and I feel like I am being a part of the industry at all times because I want to bring something to the call too. The result has been an explosion of open rates for my mailing list and bigger numbers in the affiliate products I recommend.

Life

You become present in life by not letting it pass you by. Not by spending money or drinking your weekends away (though I am famous for both). Find the people and the places you need to be and get there.

Follow what your heart is telling you. Mine is saying get to the beach fast and while the move hasn’t come yet, I spend weekends on the sand, going through home books and working towards the goals of getting there asap.

If life is at a stand still look at 2 factors:

• The people you spend the most time with (your friends, your partner, your boss)
• The places you spend the most time (your home, your workplace, your local bars)

The only thing you need to do to be present in your life is to either change or improve the 2 above factors.

Here’s to the peaks and valleys and to a life of living in the present moment. Let’s kick some ass.

-Greg