We’re in a camper on our way to Scotland for some R&R and I’ve been reading about Google Authorship. I wanted to share what I’ve learned with you because I know it will benefit you too.

You’re taking huge strides in your journey towards your ultimate lifestyle and I’m sure you already realise that becoming recognised as an expert in your field is one of the fastest ways to attract a queue of new clients and grow your business.

Google Authorship was launched a few months back to help authors of quality content get recognition for their expertise… to help you drive more leads to your door.

Google Authorship works by linking all the content you create to your Google+ profile… Google+ content is given a higher placement in Google searches but it also means that for anyone searching you by name or area of expertise, they can see all of your relevant content in one place.

Pretty cool huh?

So, in today’s blog I’m going to walk you through the process of setting Google Authorship up so you can immediately boost your standing in Google searches. It doesn’t take long and once you’ve got it set up, everything you post from the domain you specify is automatically linked.

Step #1
So, first of all you need a Google+ profile. If you’ve got one already, you can skip to the next step. Otherwise, go to plus.google.com and create your profile. I recommend you upload a high quality headshot photo to your profile as this will appear next to your results in Google searches.

Step #2
Now go to plus.google.com/authorship and sign in with the email address used to set up Google+ and you will be sent a verification link by email to that address.

Step #3
You will also need to verify that you have an email address on the same domain as your content. If you don’t have a domain based email address, you will be able to link your content to your Google+ profile instead.

Now, when you create content, make sure you enter a by-line at the beginning of your text which gives your name as the author E.g. “by Joanna Martin”.

TIP: The name you state in the by-line must be shown exactly as it appears in your Google+ profile otherwise Google won’t recognise the connection.

My invitation to you this week is to go ahead and set up Google Authorship… it will only take you a few minutes and you only need to do it once… in return your content will receive greater visibility and other users will be able to find you when they search for experts in your field.

I’d say that’s a winning formula… what do you think? Please leave me a comment below

One of the topics I talk about a lot with business owners who want to design their ultimate lifestyle is the importance of having passive income streams. If your business model is reliant on you working each day in return for payment, you are drastically limiting your income potential as at some stage you will hit a ceiling in available time.

Most of us start off in business this way but if you have a dream of achieving financial freedom, you will need to begin reducing the number of hours you work whilst at the same time increasing your income too.

What is passive income?
This is income generated 24 hours a day. When you are asleep or taking a holiday with your loved ones, your passive income streams continue to bring income into your business… sales you make repeatedly that require little effort on your part.

How can I generate passive income in my business?
Think about the knowledge sharing you do in your business now that you repeat over and over. Are you spending lots of time delivering training to clients that you could record into a CD, DVD or an online training program?

Are you writing the same reports over and over that could be written once and sold as an eBook? Are you running webinars that can be recorded and bundled in to a paid for video series?

What else?
Well, your customers all learn from you in different ways; some prefer to read copy, others are more visual or auditory and learn from hearing or watching the lessons you have to share.

So consider this;

Let’s say you have several webinars that you’ve converted into a video series. Your first product is a video… (Or DVD if you wanted a physical rather than online product)

If you had the videos transcribed, in addition to the video you’d have an eBook

You could strip the audio from the video to create a MP3 or CD series too

So, from several webinars that you have delivered and recorded, you now have the potential to create five products that you can sell or bundle as added value! Can you see the difference that could make to your lifestyle?

The key to passive income
If you are working towards your ultimate lifestyle, begin to consider the potential for products from everything you do. Ask yourself if this work is something you could make any future use of and take the steps to make sure you do what is necessary to realise the potential.

For example; a webinar will never form part of any product if you don’t record the live session…!

So today I invite you to spend some time thinking about how you could adapt your working style to create your own passive income streams. Do you already have content that could be converted to immediately begin generating income? What will you need to do differently in the future to create paid products?

One final point on this… it is important that what you create is a solution to the problems your clients are facing otherwise they won’t buy. If you’re not yet sure of the solutions they need, a great place to start is by surveying your current clients and asking them.

Are you feeling inspired to create your first product? Do you already have passive income streams in your business? Please leave me a comment and share what you’re doing to design your ultimate lifestyle.

Remaining authentic:
When I first started in business, most of my role models were men… a few years ago the personal development successes were predominantly male and so I mirrored their style because I felt it would lead to my success too.

However, I wasn’t being true to myself.

So, it doesn’t matter who you are learning from, whose success you wish to emulate, it is more important that you stay true to yourself and your unique blend that sets you apart from your peers.

You see, choosing to emulate your role model is part of your learning but what you don’t want to do is to copy everything they do.

Remaining individual:
Some people look at the success their role model has generated then go and do everything the exact same way in the hope the success will rub off.

But what happens is they lose sight of why their role model is successful… it isn’t just because they did this or that… so replicating their actions alone won’t enable you to mirror their results.

Does that make sense?

Your recipe for success:
The reason why you will become successful and achieve your ultimate lifestyle goals is because of who you are. Certainly there are actions you must take… building a list for example, identifying your niche and solving the problems that your prospects are experiencing… but it is your individuality and unique style that will pull all the individual actions together into a winning formula.

And it is that winning formula that will lead to your success.

Now, I’m not saying you should stop observing and learning… as a business owner I’d like to hope you will continue to learn and develop forever more… but whatever you do to move one step closer to your ultimate lifestyle… remember who you are.

Always be authentic and in alignment with your own core purpose.

She was telling me that she had spent the previous week dwelling on a difficult conversation she knew she needed to have with one of her clients. It was a conversation that she felt would be emotional and difficult for both of them.

Focusing on negative outcomes
She’d spent some time preparing to manage the negative outcome she expected from the conversation;

• Writing herself a script for how she would deliver the news
• Role playing the conversation in her mind
• Figuring out how to manage the anticipated conflict
• And generally psyching herself up to make that call

Until she realised that she was focusing all her energies into an expected outcome but avoiding taking any steps towards an actual result!

If you are familiar with the Law of Attraction you’ll know that it states we attract what we expect and by focusing on a negative outcome, you are likely to attract a negative outcome.

Positive outcomes
She made a decision: instead of expecting the call to go badly, she began to imagine the conversation going well and ending positively. Then she picked up the phone and made that call.

And guess what? The call DID go well and there WAS a positive outcome!

It got me thinking… how many times do we put off doing something because we fear a negative outcome? If we’re honest we’ve all done it at some point… I know I have and I expect you have too?

Now think about situations you’ve gone into with positive expectations… did your positive thinking manifest into a great outcome?

You see, when you look back at times where you have put off a task, decision or conversation because of your inner fears for a bad outcome… doesn’t it feel like a lot of wasted time? The truth is, you are limiting your success when you spend time focusing on what you think might happen instead of getting it done and managing the actual outcome.

I’m not saying you should never prepare for worst case scenarios but don’t let yourself put off doing something to focus on negative outcomes. Take that next step in your lifestyle journey with positive expectations and you’ll discover you can manifest those beliefs into positive outcomes.

Can you relate to this? Leave me a comment and tell me about a time you feared an outcome or when you manifested a positive outcome from positive expectations?

Can you relate to that too? Are you finding that everything else you have to do takes most of your time and you’re not getting any nearer to your personal goals?

A few weeks ago I wrote a blog on how to prioritize your time and I’d invite you to read it again: consider if becoming tougher on your time management priorities will help you to take steps forward.

But today I want to talk about deadlines. You see, I know that deadlines imposed by your clients are important and you strive hard to meet them. But what your self imposed deadlines? Are you putting yourself under pressure to meet those too?

I think it is fair to say that without pressure some people can become a little lazy about meeting their own goals… it is the lack of accountability that causes this lethargy… you think to yourself that nobody is going to mind if you deliver late on your own goals?!

And before you know it a month has passed… then two… then you forget all about it completely!

If you’re reading this nodding your head, I want you to make a commitment to yourself right now… your self imposed goal deadlines are EQUALLY important to those you set for clients. Your ultimate lifestyle is at stake here.

So, let’s look at a few simple ways you can become personally accountable;

Whiteboard
Consider writing your deadlines on a whiteboard placed somewhere prominent in your office. Seeing the date getting closer every day will act as a prompt to keep you focused on that goal. Perhaps you could even have a countdown to show how many days remain until the deadline too?

Share with others
As soon as you tell someone else the deadline you have set for yourself, you automatically have accountability. Suddenly you either have to meet the deadline or explain to someone else why you have failed… nobody likes to be thought of as a failure so you’ll work harder on prioritising your time to make sure you succeed.

Group mentoring
Being part of a group, working towards the same goal, can be an incredibly powerful way to force you to meet that goal. Now obviously this strategy doesn’t work for all types of goals but say for example you set yourself a goal to have your book written and published this year?

You could look around and find other authors with the same goal… supporting each other will help you to knuckle down and get it written. I know from experience that it can be very easy to keep pushing the writing of your own book down the priority list but the sooner you get it written, the sooner you are a published author!

Group support is a valuable resource; whether you connect with your peers on or offline, there are plenty of people struggling with the same dilemmas as you are. Whatever goals you set for yourself this year, find the way that works for you to make things happen and keep going forward.

Once you know you HAVE to meet that deadline, the responsibility falls to you to make sure you prioritise the time needed to make it happen.

Remember the important question;

“Is every action taking me one step nearer to my ultimate lifestyle?”

We’re a third of the way through 2012 now… are you 33% closer to your lifestyle goals for this year yet? Deadlines are vital parts of achieving your lifestyle goals… you owe it to yourself to meet your own deadlines as well as your clients!

How do you make sure you meet your self imposed deadlines? Do you have a tendency to slip into your comfort zone if you have no accountability? Please share your story in the comments area… Re-align with your goals right here.