Build the Machine First. I literally just heard that on a webinar (podcast?) from Shane Melaugh of Thrive Themes (they're launching a new podcast called Active Growth, so naturally I wanted to listen in for their launch. I love their products & content. They're also brilliant at conversions & growth). I've followed the content on Thrive Themes as soon as I became a customer. It's one of the very few product sites I read regularly (they do content around using their products as well as online marketing strategies). One of my most favorite things that Thrive Themes does is break things down, step-by-step. Which was no doubt why Shane said to "build the machine first." Before we get into building the machine, I wanted to talk about a few things I see going on in the online marketing space and what it means for us. Buh-bye Bullsh*t Obviously, there will always be the ding dongs out there who make huge income claims or get caught up in the 'make money teaching how to make money' space, but they won't last long. During a recent podcast interview, I had with Troy Dean he reminded me of something I think most of us who have been online for a while forget... "there are literally hundreds of thousands of people discovering WordPres for the first time every day"... think about that for a minute. And it doesn't have to be WordPress. Whatever it is you do, there are tons of people out there who are just discovering what you do and would love to learn more. At the same time, there are tons of people out there who hit the web running with enthusiasm for finding their "thing" and find the douchey marketers first. Then they get frustrated because they've invested thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours (quite possibly thousands of hours as well) and haven't made a penny. They own more information products than they know what to do with, haven't completed most of them (side note: plenty of these products may very well be great products, but most are rarely a 'one size fits all' solution), and are on total overload. I wish nothing more for people to understand that creating a profitable online business takes work, commitment, and time. Can it happen faster than an offline business? Totally. In terms of speed, that depends on you. Although it's not how quickly you do things... it's how consistently you do things. As much as I try not to give energy to regrets, I truly wish I had gotten this lesson earlier. I wish I had trusted what felt right in my gut when I was building my business and had the strength to put blinders on when I came across shiny objects or lifestyle images. Not because everything was bullsh*t, but because they were simply distractions. Every time I went in a different direction (and losing site of the fundamentals), it delayed the results I wanted. Think about it... Let's say you decide you want to paint your house (or simply a room for that matter). What happens if start painting one wall, then go to Pinterest and start looking at other paint colors. You see something that appears to look better so you go get a different color and start over. Then you do this 10 more times. You NEVER see the end result. You never get the full picture for what the color would look like on the house or in the room because you never complete the job. Let's say you do finish the paint job... Unless you're having a party or inviting people over you'll never get the 'wow! Love the paint color you chose!' Of course, you painted the room for you, but the validation still feels good, right? Can you imagine going through this process over and over and over again? At some point you'd just pick a color... any color, because you'd be so sick of painting that you would just want it DONE. This is what happens in business when you keep jumping from one thing to the next (note: there is also a time for letting things go before they're finished as well,