Today’s YOUR Independence Day!

For those of you in the States…Happy Independence Day!

Now even if you don’t celebrate “The 4th of July” like we
do in the U.S., today is still the perfect day to think
about your independence.

And for just that reason, we have 2 important articles to
share with you…

The first is something my buddy Yanik Silver released
briefly but had so many people raving about it that we’ve
decided to republish it for all our subscribers.

And the second article is from Dan Kennedy.

If you haven’t heard of Dan Kennedy let megive you the
quick run-down. He’s a speaker, consultant, business coach,
and author of numerous books as well as his famous ‘No B.S.
Marketing Letter’, which is considered the best business
building newsletter of its kind.

In fact, Dan is widely respected as one of the top marketing
minds on the planet.

Here’s to your independence,

Jim

P.S. One more thing – we’ve managed to secure you a 3-month
‘test-drive’ of Dan’s ELITE Gold Membership as a special
“4th of July” gift. You can read all about it here:

=> http://www.your4thofjulygift.com/jedwards/

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When Is Your Independence Day?

By Yanik Silver

========================

July 4th for Americans is a chance to celebrate our
independence. Trust me, I’m not going to get on a soapbox
and start waving the flag – but I do think it’s important
no matter what country you live in to really think about
that word “independence” and its meaning for you.

My father reminded me that July 3, 1976 was his
“Independence day” since that’s the date my family came
over to the United States from Russia. (Pretty cool since
it was right before the bi-centennial celebration.)

For me, my independence day was on July 1, 1999.

That’s the date I left my father’s business to work on my
own. It was by far one of the hardest decisions of my life.
You see, I had worked for my dad since I was 12 and he
thought I was going to take over the company. I had that
same thought as well until I got the “bug”.

In fact, my wife, Missy, and I were talking about this
recently. She was talking about how when she met me 9 years
ago, I had only one thought: “how to grow my father’s
business”. I would stay late working on new ads and
marketing pieces. I was in early calling my accounts trying
to make sales, etc. etc.

Now I had been studying direct marketing, and results were
really paying off for my dad’s business. (Actually they
still use a lot of the ads I wrote in 1998 because they
still work today.) But with every ad I wrote I was getting
more and more aggravated. Not because the ads weren’t
producing sales – they were – but because of the grief and
politics I had to deal with. Everybody seemed to be an
advertising expert even though they’ve never studied or
read anything on the subject. People mistakenly believe
that if they wouldn’t “read all that copy” then nobody
will. Or if the ad is “ugly” and has no pictures or pretty
graphics it won’t work.

Complete and total crap.

For every ad I wrote I had to fight to get it out there. I
got sick of it and decided I would create my own product so
I could write ads for myself. My first product was to help
dermatologists who wanted new cosmetic patients. It was a
big kit (manual, tapes, reports, diskette, etc) based
around some marketing consulting I was doing on the side
for one of my customers.

I ran my first ad in April 1998 in Dermatologic Surgery
magazine. I got 10 responses so I sent them the 20-page
sales letter I’d written selling this $900 kit. Not one
order.

I waited…

Sent out a 2nd notice to those 10 respondents.

Nothing…

Then I sent a 3rd notice telling them the expiration date
to get all the free bonuses was only 10 days away. Finally
on the very last day of the expiration date I got one order
over the fax machine.

Yipeee!!

I still remember that doctor’s name in Flushing, NY. What
an incredible feeling. That was the start of my
independence. I realized I now had the power to chart my
course as I wanted. That first sale. That’s one of the
greatest feelings in the world – when something you’ve
created is sold. It took me a little over a year after that
first order to realize I wanted my freedom and I finally
quit on July 1, 1999.

Maybe it’s the new confidence you get when you realize
you’ve created something that people want and are willing
to exchange money for. That first sale is usually the
hardest (but also the most rewarding).

It’s wonderful when I help turn on that light in people.
I’ve seen it first-hand working my Apprentices and seeing
them launch their products. How amazed they are by the
money pouring from around the globe. I love it!

And my wife is striking out on her own with a little bit of
my help. She set up her first web site -
http://www.InstantThankYouLetters.com and she’s getting
checks each month.

So when will your independence day be?

If you’ve already achieved it – I bet you can remember it
perfectly. Sometimes the bleakest times that we believe are
terrible actually turn into a perfect opportunity.

Take my good friend, Jim Edwards’, for example. His
independence day came because he got fired. To him that
wasn’t a blessing at first but as he looks back on it -it’s
the best thing that ever happened.

I remember the conversation we had right after it happened.
I was drinking a bourbon and Jim was having a beer. We were
talking about different projects he could try and pursue
and do now. We were throwing around some ideas and we came
up with “33 Days to Online Profits”.

http://www.33daystotoonlineprofits.com

It was right there during that call that we outlined each
of the days and moved forward from there. And “33 Days” has
been a tremendous six-figure income earner for both of us
and it doesn’t seem to let up.

So what can you do to achieve your independence?

I’ll give you a couple things to take to heart. I can’t
remember the author who said this but he said if you show
me what a man does in his spare time I’ll show you the type
of man he’ll become. What are doing with your spare time?

- Watching TV or reading?

- Napping or practicing your copywriting?

- Yakking to your friends or studying direct marketing?

It all comes down to the choices we make every single day.
In fact, you shouldn’t let one day go by without making
sure you are taking at least one proactive step towards
your own independence. Just because the thought of you
doing what you want when you want may seem so far away -
don’t let that stop you from taking those baby steps each
and every day. That’s one of my rules and I hope you’ll
adopt it.

What else?

Learn to be different. The truth is you need to become
extraordinary to achieve extraordinary results. You can’t
be like everyone else (and why would you want to). That
means doing the things other don’t (or won’t) do. That
means not listening to their advice (unless they are doing
what you want to do). Frankly, if you simply did the exact
opposite of what everyone else is doing you’d turn out
okay. Why? If only 5% of people are truly successful and
the 95% are the mediocre majority – doesn’t that mean the
majority is wrong? Don’t engage in their thinking. Don’t
follow their lead. Don’t adhere to the same values and
standards the “95-percenters” do.

Two people who really helped me clarify my thinking on this
were Early Nightingale and Dan Kennedy. (See next article
for his insight and a special gift I’ve arranged for you.)

Please don’t get me wrong – in no way am I trying to be
elitist. I’m not. But it is tremendously important to go
through your day with your eyes wide open. The truth is
most of your friends (right now) probably don’t want you to
change and succeed. That would imply that they are losers.
That would mean they are failures. Nobody is going to
propel you to succeed except yourself.

So get on it and proclaim your own Independence Day
starting T-O-D-A-Y!

* * *

And here’s article #2 from Dan Kenendy for you…

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“3 Ways To Accelerate Independence”

By Dan S. Kennedy
==========================================

Most people reading this have goals.

If you do not, you need to stop reading, close your
business for a couple days, lock yourself away in quiet and
private and figure out what you want and don’t want. But
let’s assume you have goals. If you do, you would probably
like to reach them faster. After all, we live in a
lightning speed, amazingly impatient world.

What most entrepreneurs’ experience, at some point in their
lives, is what I call the “wealth sprint to independence.”
Yes, life’s a marathon. But almost every highly successful
entrepreneur has had the same experience I’ve had: a short
sprint of 3, 4 or 5 years where you achieve more than in
the previous 15, 20 or 30 years. What makes this sprint
happen? If you knew, could you force it to happen
immediately?

There are many factors in order to accelerate your
independence and I’d like to discuss a few of the most
important ones with you:

(1) INCREASED INVESTMENT IN VASTLY
SUPERIOR MARKETING AND PROMOTION

Virtually everyone who’s done the ‘wealth sprint to
independence’, kicked it off with advertising, marketing or
sales breakthrough or related business breakthrough, such
as premium pricing. For one, a TV infomercial; for
another, joint venture alliances or ‘parasite’
opportunities with other entrepreneurs; for another, adding
tele-seminars; for another use of the Internet.

One way or another, they found a new or better way to apply
some proven marketing strategy or tool to their business
and did so aggressively. This is why it is so vital to be a
very, very serious student of successful marketing. To be
on the constant hunt for that one idea, that one ‘tweak’.

(2) IMPROVED WEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS

I don’t mean to sound esoteric. But, believe me, us multi-
millionaire ‘independent’ entrepreneurs do think about
money differently from the rest of the folk. Profoundly so.
For example, we know that money is infinite, not finite;
that price is incredibly elastic; that everybody finds the
money to buy what they are really motivated to buy; that
it’s always a great economy for the adept marketer.

We have no hang-ups about sales, promotion. This is why it
is very important to associate with such people any and
every way you can, so their unorthodox thinking can become
your thinking.

This is why tele-coaching and coaching groups, tele-
seminars, tapes, books and newsletters from such bona fide
sources are of such immense value. Quite frankly, if
you’re not hitting your independence goals as rapidly and
easily as you’d like, it probably has a lot more to do with
your thinking than your business, its location, its
customers, its competitors or other external factors.

(3) INTENSE EFFORT

We do a lot and get a lot done. I’m amazed and dismayed at
how little others make happen, hour by hour, day by day.
Here’s a good question: if I came to your business on a
field trip and followed you around all day, every day, for
a week, how impressed and in awe would I be at…

Everything you do everyday to attract new customers?
Everything you do to convert leads, to get more value from
leads? Everything you do to analyze your business everyday?
Everything you do to nurture the relationship with your
customers? Everything you do to manage your time
effectively? Everything you do to improve your knowledge
and skill? Everybody you associate with?

Not just one or two things ­ everything ­ lots of things.

If I wouldn’t be all that impressed then you shouldn’t be
either, and you should be striving to up the ante on your
productivity.

**
Recommended Resource: Through a special arrangement that
we’ve set up with Dan Kennedy, you can test drive a 3-month
FREE ELITE Dan Kennedy Gold Membership, which includes 3-
months of his fantastic NO B.S. Marketing Letter.

For complete details click here:

=> http://www.your4thofjulygift.com/jedwards/

**

That about wraps it up.

Enjoy your 4th of July and Happy Independence Day to all our
valued subscribers.

- Jim